APCA’s newly established Community of Interest Network (COIN) started carrying ‘live’ payments traffic in February 2010. It is designed to provide network and connectivity services for the domestic EFTPOS and ATM, direct debit and direct credit and cheque payment systems and the BPAY bill payments service which together represent around 98% by value of Australia’s non-cash retail payments.
The COIN is next generation connectivity for Australian payments – a network ‘cloud’ using IP to transfer payment files and messages between payments participants. It replaces the legacy bilateral links using x.25 protocol, which are costly for participants to establish and maintain. Telstra provides the IP-based virtual private network for the COIN.
A major component of APCA’s work has been to develop governance arrangements for the COIN. The COIN operates independently from APCA’s clearing systems and is open to all participants in the payments system. It has its own governance framework including technical rules and membership criteria. The industry will manage the evolution of the COIN through a newly established management committee comprising COIN members.
APCA’s current focus is to ensure a smooth transition to the COIN. The APCA working group established for this purpose has developed a migration timetable and testing strategy to provide guidance to COIN members. Already 12 of Australia’s largest payments services providers are transitioning payments traffic. Migration of all bilateral links is scheduled to conclude by the end of 2011.