Payments System Review Conference Sydney, 29 November 2007

As part of the Reserve Bank of Australia's 2007/08 review of the reforms to Australia's payments system, the Bank co-hosted a conference with the Centre for Business and Public Policy at the Melbourne Business School. The conference was held in Sydney on 29 November 2007.

The first half of the day comprised two sessions. In the first, Professor Jean-Charles Rochet from Toulouse University presented a paper that examined competition between payment systems and the role of interchange fees in this process; and Dr Alan Frankel from Lexecon presented a paper that explored whether concerns about interchange fees could be addressed other than through the direct regulation of these fees. In the second session, the Bank presented the results of the cost and usage studies it had undertaken as part of the review. For each of these three presentations there were two discussants, followed by a period for general discussion.

The afternoon took the form of an open discussion moderated by Professor Ian Harper from the Melbourne Business School. Professor Harper invited participants to nominate issues for this session ahead of the conference. On the basis of submissions, a number of introductory speakers were selected by Professor Harper to open the discussion on each topic, after which contributions from the floor were invited.

A conference volume, containing conference papers and a summary of discussion, was published on 17 April 2008.