RBA slams lender delays on immediate transfer for customers

THE nation’s major lenders have been rapped over the knuckles by the Reserve Bank for dragging their heels on allowing customers to instantly transfer money.

And Facebook’s plan to launch its own cryptocurrency has caught the attention of the nation’s top money mandarins, who say they are monitoring its development.

The comments were provided in an update, released yesterday, from the RBA’s Payments System Board monthly meeting.

The board is responsible for determining policies around the nation’s payments system.

A new industry-wide payment platform, known as the New Payments Platform, or NPP, was launched in February last year.

The system is designed to allow consumers and businesses to instantly move money between banks any time.

Under the existing system, transactions can take days to settle.

The new system also allows for so-called data enriched payments, enabling customers to include longer descriptions on transfers, or to attach documents such as business invoices.

These data enriched transactions would allow, for example, a business to inform the Australia Taxation Office or a superannuation fund when it paid a staff member.

The big four banks have spent about $1 billion developing the system, which will provide a defence against the uptake of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

A key selling point of such cryptocurrencies is that they can provide instant payments.

The RBA has repeatedly expressed frustration that major lenders are taking too long to roll out the new payment system.