Real-time payments are booming, so why is Australia's old banking system still moving $18 trillion?

Résumé détaillé

Australia's real-time payments revolution is accelerating, with the New Payments Platform accounting for more than 70% of new account-to-account transaction growth. Yet the...

Australia's real-time payments revolution is accelerating, with the New Payments Platform accounting for more than 70% of new account-to-account transaction growth. Yet the country's decades-old banking infrastructure still carries most of the money, raising important questions about how businesses modernise payments without leaving existing systems behind.

Australia moved an extraordinary $21.26 trillion between bank accounts in the 12 months to July 2026, across more than 5.35 billion transactions.

That's an almost unimaginable amount of money flowing through the financial system. But perhaps the most interesting finding isn't how much Australians are moving. It's how they're moving it.

According to Australian payments technology company Zepto's newly released 2026 Account-to-Account (A2A) Payments Index, the New Payments Platform (NPP) accounted for 71% of the growth in A2A transaction volumes over the reporting period.

The NPP, which underpins services including Osko, PayID and PayTo, now handles 37% of Australia's account-to-account transactions.

Yet the older Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS), which businesses have relied upon for decades to process direct debits, payroll and other payments, still carries a remarkable 86% of the total value transferred.

In other words, Australia's payments revolution isn't a straightforward story of new technology replacing old technology.

Both are growing, and businesses increasingly need to understand where each fits.

The figures tell a fascinating story. In the year to July 2026, the NPP processed 1.99 billion transactions worth $2.84 trillion. Transaction volumes increased 11.9% year-on-year, while the value of those transactions surged 26%. Meanwhile, BECS continued processing 3.36 billion transactions worth approximately $18.4 trillion.

Début de l'article, extrait de iTWire. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.