The credit crunch has convulsed the global financial services industry. Bank failures have marred the outlook in Europe and the Americas. Governments and central banks debate rescue packages and brace for more to come. Amongst the turmoil, payment systems infrastructure has not only remained resilient and robust, but made some significant advances.

The international context is key to understanding local developments.
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Australia has enjoyed a dozen years of payment product innovation, driven by the search for competitive advantage amongst financial service providers. This period has seen the advent of telephone banking, web banking and online business banking packages. Now there are signs that the underlying infrastructure that has adapted to support all these products, the direct entry system, itself needs an overhaul. 
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In the midst of entrenched industry debates on interchange fees, the Reserve Bank (RBA) has proposed stepping back from direct regulation of card scheme interchange fees and instead seeking to promote competitive forces as a long-term means to address policy concerns.

In exploring the implications of the RBA’s proposals, much can be learned from policy approaches in other network industries. 
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