Payments & Infrastructure

A safe, competitive and efficient payments system is essential to support the day-to-day business of the Australian economy. The Payments System Board of the Reserve Bank has a mandate to contribute to promoting efficiency and competition in the payments system, and the overall stability of the financial system. The Bank oversees the payments system as a whole, which encompasses a wide variety of individual payment instruments – ranging from cheques and payment cards to high-value corporate payments – and the usually unseen arrangements that ensure the smooth transfer of funds from accounts at one financial institution to another.

The Bank also has a formal regulatory role to ensure that the infrastructure supporting the clearing and settlement of transactions in financial markets is operated in a way that promotes financial stability. In addition, the Bank has an important operational role in the payments system through its ownership and management of the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System (RITS), Australia's real-time gross settlement system.