Cash payment decline tipped to gather pace in 2018

A $1 billion piece of infrastructure to be switched on in early 2018 is likely to accelerate the decline of cash and further cut into already tumbling use of cheques, payments company BPay Group predicts.

In a change that Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has described as potentially “transformational,” the new payments platform is due to be switched on soon after Australia Day in 2018.

The project, which is going through its final stages of testing over summer, will offer consumers the ability to make real-time payments to customers of other banks. The system will also allow people to link bank accounts to phone numbers or email addresses, removing the need to enter a BSB or account number when transferring money.

BPay will run a service known as “Osko” that will be what customers see when they make payments on the NPP – banks are expected to roll out Osko services when the NPP goes live. BPay Group chief executive John Banfield said the new service would have a significant impact on the use of cash for small payments.

“I think Osko will change the way in which Australians will pay. It will go a long way to eliminating small cash payments, eliminating cheques, and also go a long way to taking away some of the pain around paying anyone,” Mr Banfield told BusinessDay.

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Source: Cash payment decline tipped to gather pace in 2018 – The Age