ISO 20022 Migration for the Australian Payments System –
Responses and Options Paper – September 2019 5. Governance

5.1 Summary of responses

Responses reflect a broad consensus that the migration project should be industry led. There is strong support for an appropriate body (such as the APC, RBA or the Payments System Board (PSB)) to provide oversight and to ensure ongoing industry commitment and accountability.

Many respondents feel that a governance approach similar to the one adopted for the NPP would be appropriate. The preferred governance model includes a steering committee made up of appropriately senior industry executives, a dedicated project management office and working groups made up of industry representative subject matter experts to deliver the specific work streams identified.

A number of respondents support the Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet) taking a lead role in the project's coordination and delivery. AusPayNet is willing to take on this role, including taking responsibility for establishing a steering committee and project management office resourcing.

Respondents noted that careful and close coordination is required across a wide group of stakeholders to effectively manage all aspects of the project, and that working groups would need representation from a diverse range of experts across the industry.

5.2 Proposed governance structure

Consistent with the feedback received, Figure 13 provides an example of how a governance model might be structured.

In this model, the APC would provide strategic oversight and ensure ongoing industry commitment to the project, with AusPayNet playing the central role in administering the delivery of the project. There would be periodic reporting to the PSB of the status of the project and the progress in migration. A steering committee would have responsibility for the strategic and tactical decision making during the program and have overall responsibility, accountability and authority for program delivery. Importantly, this would also include coordination and oversight of individual industry participants' system build and testing programs.

AusPayNet would be the central coordinating authority with responsibility for: establishing the steering committee and project office; developing associated steering committee governance documents (e.g. a charter and minutes); monitoring the effectiveness of the project office's work; and delivering the necessary changes to the HVCS regulations and procedures. AusPayNet would report to the steering committee in relation to its responsibilities. AusPayNet would also need the appropriate level of resources for this important role and may need to recruit additional staff, or manage a contract with a consulting firm (as was the case with the NPP).

Working groups would be established for specific topic areas, as determined by the steering committee, with cross-industry representative membership. Working groups would be convened by the project management office, and meetings scheduled as appropriate to the needs of the program. Working groups and/or sub-committees of the steering committee would be established and dissolved as needed.

As with the NPP project, the steering committee would need to consist of senior payments industry executives typically at Executive General Manager or General Manager level, drawn from small, medium and large organisations across the payments industry. In addition to these representatives, the steering committee could potentially include: an independent chairperson; a representative from AusPayNet, a representative from the RBA's Payments Settlements Department (responsible for RITS) and an independent ISO 20022 payments industry/standards expert (possibly from SWIFT).