2005 Self-assessment of the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System Introduction

The Core Principles for Systemically Important Payment Systems^[1] are designed to assess systems where, if the system were insufficiently protected against risk, disruption within it could trigger or transmit further disruptions amongst participants or systemic disruptions in the financial area more widely.^[2] While the Core Principles are applicable to systems that transfer financial assets, such as securities, as well as funds transfers, other principles covering a fuller range of issues applying to securities settlement have subsequently been developed.^[3]

There is one systemically important payment system in Australia, the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System (RITS). RITS is owned and operated by the central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia (Reserve Bank) – see also section 0.3. Austraclear, a systemically important securities clearing and settlement system, settles any interbank cash payments for debt securities transactions through payment instructions in RITS. Austraclear is subject to assessment against standards for clearing and settlement systems and is not assessed against the Core Principles for Systemically Important Payment Systems.

RITS also accepts payment instructions from other systems specifying real-time gross settlement (RTGS) and interbank payments for settlement of deferred net clearing arrangements. RITS settles a daily average of 23,000 RTGS transactions with a value of $136 billion.

Footnotes

Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems, Bank for International Settlements, January 2001. [1]

3.0.2 of the Core Principles. [2]

1.7 of the Core Principles. Recommendations for Securities Settlement Systems, Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems, Bank for International Settlements, November 2001. [3]