The conversation about instant payments in Australia is about to enter a new phase. In a speech in Sydney, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Michele Bullock said the central bank will begin in 2026 to explore ways to modernise the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System (RITS), the country’s main interbank settlement infrastructure.
The reason is straightforward. When consumers and businesses expect money to arrive immediately, what happens behind the app, operating hours, messaging standards, and how obligations are settled between institutions can determine whether “now” means seconds, minutes, or the next business day.
The Infrastructure That Moves Money Between Banks, And Where The Clock Matters
At the centre of this debate is a difference that does not always show up for the end user. The transfer you see in your account history can be initiated at any time, but settlement between banks depends on specific rails.
The RBA itself describes RITS as the system that enables banks and approved institutions to settle interbank obligations using accounts held at the central bank. Australia already has a 24/7 component within RITS.
The Fast Settlement Service (FSS) settles New Payments Platform (NPP) payments in real time 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Even so, for other transaction types, settlement still runs on a more traditional day.
On a normal business day, RITS generally operates from 7.30 am to 10.00 pm (AEST/AEDT). This is where the conversation about real-time withdrawals starts to get concrete. In digital markets, people tend to compare not only the product experience, but also how predictable it is to actually receive funds.
That can be in fintech, marketplaces, or online entertainment services, including casino platforms and other forms of wagering. In that context, it also makes sense that people are interested in criteria like comparing payout percentages across casinos when the discussion is about what returns to the user and how quickly. Because, in the end, the feeling of fast payment is a combination of front-end experience and the financial system’s ability to settle and make funds available with minimal friction.
What The RBA Wants To Put On The Table In 2026
In her speech, Bullock was clear that RITS needs to remain fit for purpose in the future, even if it is performing well today, because it is the country’s central settlement infrastructure. The RBA said that from 2026 it intends to explore options to modernise RITS, with three recurring lines of inquiry.
The first is adopting modern data exchange methods to improve user experience and operational efficiency. The second is assessing whether operating hours can be extended or made more flexible, a critical point when the digital economy already runs on a continuous rhythm.
The third is expanding access to settlement in central bank money for a broader range of transactions. It is a review aimed at modernising a system that sits at the core of how payments work in Australia. For the user, the question is rarely which system settles a payment.
It is usually more practical. Did it hit the account or not, and when? Even in a country with well-established fast payments, different money journeys still run through different channels, with different rules and windows.
The RBA itself distinguishes the FSS (24/7 for NPP) from other transaction types that remain tied to banking business days and defined operating hours. Extending hours in real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems is not only an Australian issue.
A brief from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) notes that longer operating hours can allow participants to offer better services to end users, including 24/7 fast payments, and that several infrastructures are considering gradual extensions.
When you combine that backdrop with consumer demand for faster access to funds across different services, it becomes clear why the settlement system clock is part of the real-time debate.
The Numbers Behind The Urgency: Volume, Digital Habits, And Scale
The RBA’s speech includes statistics that help explain why modernisation has moved beyond infrastructure and into the economic agenda. According to Bullock, Australians now make, on average, around 700 digital payments per year. That is a sharp increase from roughly 100 per year in the early 2000s.
On the interbank backbone, RITS settles around A$300 billion per day, a figure the Governor compared to turning over Australia’s annual GDP every nine days. The FSS operates at a different scale.
Around A$5 billion per day, with high volumes, about 4 million transactions daily, most in under a second. That contrast matters because it shows two pressures at once. The first is volume and habit. More people pay digitally and expect immediate confirmation.
The second is the diversity of use cases. Not every money flow runs on the same rail, and changes to operating hours and messaging standards can influence how closely the real experience matches the promise of instant payments.
