TOMORROW'S PAYMENTS

The New Payments Platform

The New Payments Platform [NPP] is Australia’s real-time account-to-account [A2A] payments infrastructure.

REAL-TIME ALL THE TIME

Faster, smarter payments

The New Payments Platform [NPP] is Australia’s real-time payments infrastructure.

The NPP was developed via industry collaboration, and enables Australian consumers, businesses and government agencies to make digital payments in real-time at any time. It facilitates the clearing and settlement of real-time data-rich payments for the Australian digital economy.

NPP Australia [NPPA] is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Australian Payments Plus [AP+], and is responsible for maintaining and developing the NPP infrastructure to ensure it meets Australia's current and future real-time payments needs.

Payments Infrastructure for the Future

THE ORIGIN OF THE NPP

Launched in 2018, the NPP was developed to address the evolving needs for speed, flexibility, security and efficiency in Australia's digital economy. It is a step change over the bank transfers and direct debits of Australia's legacy digital payments workhorse — the Bulk Electronic Clearance System [BECS]. BECS has served Australia well — on business days — since the 1980s, reliably handling account-to-account [A2A] payment volumes of more than $15 trillion a year, but is slated for retirement in 2030.

DATA & AVAILABILITY

The NPP was built using ISO20022 [the international standard for financial industry messaging] to enable more data. This means that up to 280 characters can travel with every payment, facilitating easier invoice reconciliation and record-keeping. NPP payments are real-time, data-rich and can be made at any hour, 365 days of the year. Operating at the speed of our online lives, the NPP real-time digital payments experience consumers expect, and the efficiencies that businesses need.

ACCESSIBILITY & INNOVATION

NPP infrastructure supports the development of ‘overlay’ services like Osko by BPAY to offer innovative payment services to end-users. Other NPP payments include NPP payouts, PayID payments, and PayTo. Zepto is a directly Connected Institution (CI) on the NPP for PayTo, and enjoys wholesale access to the NPP as an NPP Participant. Zepto's simple-to-use API provides access to the NPP’s capabilities.
MORE THAN JUST SPEED

Safety & Security

The NPP was built with speed, safety and security in mind. NPP infrastructure is certified to the highest data security standards and monitored 24/7-365.

Customers authorise NPP payments in their online or mobile banking app. PayTo agreements, for example, are presented in a customer’s internet or mobile banking for authorisation. Likewise, PayID offers identity verification, and a payee confirmation step so payers know they're paying the right person.

Financial institutions can offer NPP payment services only if they comply with strict security requirements.

NPP Payment Solutions by Zepto

PayTo is a modern way for businesses to collect payments from their customers’ bank accounts and have them settle in real time, all the time. It's sometimes described as an always-on, instant direct debit. But we think it's much more than that. Get to know PayTo more HERE.

Zepto is a directly Connected Institution [CI] on the NPP for PayTo.

Zepto’s flagship instant-funds transfer solution supercharges millions of transactions each day with the unique capability to activate thousands of PayIDs instantaneously.

Zepto merchant customers can create a unique PayID for every customer to facilitate instant, easy payments and accurate, automated reconciliation. Get to know Zepto's PayID capabilities HERE.

With Zepto’s low cost, high speed, resilient NPP payment solutions, businesses can configure high-volume, time-critical, end-to-end payment flows that flex & scale. When complex enterprise payment flows are at play, every zeptosecond counts.

"BECS is not able to send complete remittance information. As many of you know, the limited number of characters stems from the number of characters that could be carried on a punch card! Decades on, this is no longer fit for purpose. It prevents automating the reconciliation of payments and makes it harder to screen for financial crimes. The NPP uses the data-rich ISO 20022 messaging format, which is the new global standard for payments systems."
Michele Bullock - RBA Governor at the AusPayNet Summit in December 2023

Features and Benefits of the NPP

The NPP enables real-time clearing and settlement of account-to-account [or pay-by-bank] transactions. This is equally applicable to simple transactions and funds transfers, as well as complex enterprise payment flows.

The NPP operates 24-hours a day, 365 days a year. Yes, even at 3.00am on Good Friday. No 'business days only' impediments here, just the fast, free-flow of funds that businesses need, and the modern payment experiences their customers expect.

NPP enables the inclusion of much more data with each transaction. More detailed information accompanying every payment can facilitate easier invoice reconciliation and record-keeping. After all, you should be focused on growing your business, not your back office.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian Payments Plus, NPP Australia is governed by the Board of Australian Payments Plus. Its operations are also guided by a number of committees with broad representation from 14 Participants.

NPP Mandatory Compliance Requirements and Determinations can be found HERE.

The New Payments Platform is accessible to both consumers and businesses via participating financial institutions. This wide accessibility ensures that a large portion of the Australian population can benefit from the services offered by the NPP.

The NPP is designed to be fast, flexible, and to support innovation in payments and financial services. A feature of the NPP is its open access framework which allows for financial institutions and fintechs like Zepto to connect to the platform. This fosters the type of competition and innovation that can deliver game-changing experiences to businesses and their customers alike.

NPP Need-To-Know

NPP payments are near instant, data-rich and can be made at any hour of the day, seven days a week, 365 days of the year. Operating at the speed of the digital economy and our online lives, they deliver real-time digital payments experience consumers expect, and the efficiencies that business needs.

As NPP payments can process, settle and reconcile in seconds, recipients can have immediate use of funds improving cash flow.

NPP payments can carry up to 280 characters of reference text for a better customer experience.

They can be cost effective, too, compared to other payment methods.

Learn more HERE.

> Participant
> Settlement Participant
> Identified Institution
> Connected Institution
> Overlay Service Provider

More here.

Zepto is connected to the real-time payment rails of the NPP in two ways: 

> Directly connected as a Connected Institution [CI] for PayTo.
> Wholesale access to the NPP as an NPP Participant.

As the first non-authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) approved to connect directly to the NPP as a ‘Connected Institution’ for PayTo, Zepto is a trusted payments infrastructure player and a pioneering force in modernising payment experiences.

Zepto powers payments for numerous large enterprises attracted to our blend of fintech agility, accessibility and support underpinned by enterprise grade infrastructure that delivers extensibility, security and stability.

Zepto sits at the intersection of real-time payments and data, with a clear view of "what's possible" when it comes to real-time, account-to-account payments for enterprise.

We firmly believe that the business battles of tomorrow will be won with payments technology that's available today.

Click HERE for a real-time view of our API status and uptime.

Built as a RESTful API using JSON as its data-interchange format, Zepto's API is aligned to ISO 20022 enabling standardisation, automation, improved reporting and carriage of data-rich payments, all of which are supported by the ISO 20022 messaging standard.

Zepto is proudly ISO/IEC 27001 certified for information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection. Read more about the Zepto platform HERE.

We believe great customer experience is everything, and that NPP payments can deepen the customer-merchant relationship, drive trust, loyalty and elevate customer experience.

Unencumbered by legacy technology and thinking, Zepto has built a Financial Cloud Service that sits atop an interchangeable orchestration layer of payment and data channels.

That means no 'legacy', and no batch processing. Just modern enterprise-grade payment infrastructure designed to meet modern customer expectations of the real-time, digital economy.