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The community-owned bank is one of the latest to complete its rollout of instant payments via the New Payments Platform.
Heritage Bank has announced that it has finalised the integration of the New Payments Platform – which was developed by a consortium of 13 financial institutions to facilitate instant, cross-institutional transfer of funds on a 24-hour basis – into its mobile banking app.
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The bank’s customers is now able to send and receive NPP faster payments through the app using a BSB and account number, or a PayID.
Heritage Bank CEO Peter Lock said: “We know they want fast, simple and convenient options to send and receive payments between financial institutions. That’s why we’re absolutely thrilled to offer NPP faster payments via our app.
“Through NPP faster payments, our members have more freedom in how they send and receive money and can easily keep track of how they stand financially in near real time.”
Despite the Reserve Bank repeatedly expressing disappointment at the “slow” and “uneven” rollout of the NPP, there are now more than 80 institutions connected to the platform, with the number expected to grow.
The central bank also last month urged banks to make the system’s data-rich features available to customers, such as the ability to attach rich data to payments to enhance productivity.
“Even where NPP services have been enabled, some major banks still have significant functionality gaps in terms of the ways that payments can be initiated or the limits that are placed on payment amounts,” the RBA’s conclusions paper stated.
“The slower-than-expected rollouts by some participants appears to reflect the complexity of their systems and underestimation of the degree of investment needed to meet delivery time frames.”
The RBA had launched a consultation in October last year to review issues related to the functionality of, and access to, the NPP, alongside the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
It concluded that the governance systems of NPP Australia – the organisation established to oversee the development and operation of the platform – were appropriate and not limiting access to the system.
[Related: Non-bank lender says NPP will be ‘transformative’ for SMEs]
