Digital Service Providers Australia New Zealand (DSPANZ) has provided a submission to the Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet)
consultation on the future vision for Australia’s account-to-account (A2A) payments ecosystem.
Our submission supports the long-term vision for a modern, trusted and innovative real-time payments ecosystem in Australia. At the same time, it highlights several practical implementation issues that will need to be addressed as the payments ecosystem transitions from the Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS) to the New Payments Platform (NPP).
Why this matters
Digital Service Providers (DSPs) play a critical role in Australia’s payments ecosystem through payroll, superannuation, taxation and business administration software.
These systems support high-volume and economically significant payment flows across salaries, wages, superannuation contributions and other business obligations. As payment infrastructure modernises, it is important that these payment flows remain:
- reliable
- commercially sustainable
- interoperable
- workable within real-world business and software environments.
Our submission also highlights the growing role of business software platforms as the operational layer between businesses and payment infrastructure.
What this means for DSPs
For DSPANZ members, payments are deeply embedded within payroll, superannuation, accounting and business administration workflows.
As Australia transitions toward real-time payments infrastructure, reliability, affordability and implementation consistency are becoming critical operational considerations — not simply technical features.
Our submission highlights that payroll and superannuation payments are fundamentally different from discretionary consumer payments. They are legally mandated, high-volume payment flows that require:
- resilient infrastructure
- scalable bulk payment capability
- commercially sustainable pricing
- consistent implementation across banks and payment providers.
What Members are experiencing
Our submission outlines several implementation issues currently being worked through across the payments ecosystem, including:
- high-volume payment pricing
- scalable bulk payment capability
- interoperability across banks and payment providers
- reconciliation and payment visibility
- API consistency
- transition governance and coordination.
Our submission also noted that inconsistent implementation across financial institutions — including around PayTo, Confirmation of Payee, APIs and reconciliation messaging — risks creating significant operational complexity and cost for software providers, employers and intermediaries.
What Happens Next
DSPANZ will continue to highlight the increasing role of business software platforms as the operational layer between businesses and Australia’s payments infrastructure.
While we support the long-term vision for a modern and innovative A2A payments ecosystem, successful implementation will depend on:
- stronger industry coordination
- clear implementation milestones
- practical transition pathways
- ongoing consultation with DSPs and the business software industry.
We will further engage with our members, stakeholders and government agencies on the future of Australia’s payments ecosystem and the transition from BECS to NPP.
You can access our full submission here. If you'd like to share your feedback, please reach out to hello@dspanz.org