The Reserve Bank of Australia today released an update on the progress made by the payments industry over the past year against the recommendations outlined in the Risk Assessment into the proposed decommissioning of the Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS).
The RBA welcomes industry's efforts over the past year to implement the recommendations from the Risk Assessment, particularly in relation to increased industry coordination and direct engagement with end users. In December 2025, AusPayNet announced that it was removing the target end-date of June 2030 for BECS until a clear roadmap has been developed for the future of account-to-account (A2A) payments in Australia. As a result, the nearer-term risks associated with a disorderly transition away from BECS have largely subsided.
Nonetheless, the RBA's Risk Assessment Update highlights that several areas of risk persist, and others have emerged to be more prominent. Key stakeholders across the A2A ecosystem have highlighted insufficient consensus within industry about the A2A payments modernisation agenda, particularly on how to best to process bulk payments in the future. This is impeding the effective decision-making and analysis needed to establish a path forward for A2A payments. As a result, industry risks losing the necessary momentum to modernise A2A payments. If industry participants are unable to make coordinated progress on modernising A2A payments, the RBA would take further action to achieve outcomes in the public interest.
