The ACCC has recently found wanting the basis on which smaller players may negotiate participation in the EFTPOS system. I should emphasise that it will be the RBA’s intention to adopt as light a regulatory touch as possible over the payments system. There has, after all, been a good deal of recent progress in reforming that system without the Bank having explicit powers.
We hope such progress will continue -- through the Australian Payments Clearing Association and other industry-based bodies. Only where payments arrangements fall short of our efficiency and safety benchmarks -- and there are no serious attempts by the industry to rectify that position reasonably quickly -- will we embark on the path of prescriptive regulation.