DID YOU KNOW?
Australia's legacy bank-account-to-bank-account payments infrastructure, BECS, is scheduled for retirement in 2030. The BECS framework has powered Australian payments since the 1980s. It handles more than $15 trillion in account-to-account [A2A] payments a year — the majority of Australian consumer payments based on value.
But over the course of decades, its capabilities have fallen short of the demands of today's always-on, fast-moving digital economy.
With 2030 slated for the retirement of the BECS, Australian payments are undergoing once-in-a-generation modernisation.
Unlock tomorrow's payments
- Billers
- Payroll
- Super Funds
- Clearing Houses and Platforms
- Insurance Providers
- Subscription Models
- Payment Platforms and Facilitators
- Lenders
- Investment Platforms
Upgrading from the constraints of 1980s payments infrastructure to the modern, real-time capabilities of the NPP demands deep expertise and future-ready tech.
Zepto delivers both.
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The real-time revolution
Why is BECS being retired?
Australia’s world-class payments system is a foundational component of the digital economy, and the BECS framework has done an incredible job since its inception in the 1980s.
BECS may reliably handle average annual values of more than $15 trillion — the majority of Australian consumer payments by value — but it processes them in batches, and only on business days. Furthermore, it is not able to send complete remittance information. As Governor Bullock noted at the 2023 AusPayNet Summit, "The limited number of characters stems from the number of characters that could be carried on a punch card! Decades on, this is no longer fit for purpose."
Australian payments are undergoing once-in-a-generation modernisation as they migrate across to the designed-for-digital New Payments Platform [NPP].
Why is the NPP a better way to pay?
The New Payments Platform [NPP] is Australia’s real-time payments infrastructure. It was developed via industry collaboration to enable Australian consumers, businesses and government agencies to make digital, A2A payments — with near real-time funds availability to the recipient — at any time. It facilitates the clearing and settlements of real-time data-rich payments for the Australian digital economy.
Use of the NPP continues to grow. A2A payments on the NPP can move and settle in real-time and carry rich data enabling, for example, automatic reconciliation.
The NPP also uses the data-rich ISO 20022 messaging format, which is the new global standard for payments systems.
Payments through BECS can only use BSB and account numbers. By contrast, the NPP incorporates PayTo and the PayID addressing service, allowing payments to be addressed to an email address or phone number, and it also provides a confirmation of payee service. These features help to reduce mistaken payments and combat some scams.
"BECS has been a low-cost and reliable workhorse of the Australian payments system for decades, processing salary and welfare payments, recurring payments to merchants and other account-to-account transfers. The payments landscape is changing rapidly, with new business models and technologies entering the space. The industry is also moving from legacy systems towards new platforms that can deliver payment services that are faster, safer and more convenient."Michele Bullock Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia. Speech: 'Modernising Australia's Payments System' at the AusPayNet Summit, 12 December 2023
"BECS has been a low-cost and reliable workhorse of the Australian payments system for decades, processing salary and welfare payments, recurring payments to merchants and other account-to-account transfers. The payments landscape is changing rapidly, with new business models and technologies entering the space. The industry is also moving from legacy systems towards new platforms that can deliver payment services that are faster, safer and more convenient."Michele Bullock Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia. Speech: 'Modernising Australia's Payments System' at the AusPayNet Summit, 12 December 2023
Migrating to the npp
The early-movers are moving. Expertise, technology, capability and proximity to the payment rails can vary widely. Partnering with the right account-to-account payments infrastructure provider can make all the difference to a successful 'BECSIT'.
As the first PayTech approved as an AusPayNet Tier 2 BECS Participant, and the first non-bank Connected Institution on the real-time rails of the NPP, Zepto is uniquely positioned to guide large businesses through the transition.
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"The NPP has the capability to support all the use cases we see on BECS today. We're working very closely with the industry and banks around how we're going to collectively migrate those payments across. There's a real opportunity for organisations to think about what their transition journey looks like, and about utilising the benefits of the NPP."Katrina Stuart GM Business Payments, AP+ at the Zepto Connect '2024 Payment Predictions' webinar, 01 February 2024
"The NPP has the capability to support all the use cases we see on BECS today. We're working very closely with the industry and banks around how we're going to collectively migrate those payments across. There's a real opportunity for organisations to think about what their transition journey looks like, and about utilising the benefits of the NPP."Katrina Stuart GM Business Payments, AP+ at the Zepto Connect '2024 Payment Predictions' webinar, 01 February 2024