Brad Jones: The future of the payments system

Speech by Mr Brad Jones, Assistant Governor (Financial System) of the Reserve Bank of Australia, at the AusPayNet Summit 2024, Sydney, 12 December 2024.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Thank you for the invitation to open the batting at this year's AusPayNet Summit. This forum is always a highlight on the calendar − for industry and policymakers alike − and I am sure this year will be no different.

Not so long ago, opining on the future of the payments system may have been a somewhat mundane affair. Not a great deal changed from one year to the next, and not too many folks, other than the true payment system diehards, were interested.

Not so now.

For a start, our payments system is rapidly evolving. New innovations are springing up at a dizzying pace.

And the payments system has never been more critical to the functioning of the economy. Almost $300 billion in payments now settle across the RBA's central infrastructure each day. This is equivalent to Australia's annual GDP flowing through the payments system every 10 days.

Furthermore, debates over the future of money and payments now regularly feature in the public square – and as I am discovering, the public square very much extends to summer barbeque conversations. In some sense, money and technology have always been the subject of popular fascination, but this seems especially true today.

In short, to channel a former Prime Minister, it has never been a more exciting time to be in payments.

My remarks today will focus on the challenges and opportunities in front of all of us involved in payments. There is no shortage of both. But before diving in, let me briefly set the scene by highlighting where our payments system stands today, and the RBA's role in it.