Australia’s New Payments Platform (NPP) processes more than 155 million real-time transactions a month across nearly every major financial institution in the country. The NPP is driving a national shift in payment architecture that’s designed to replace batch systems, reduce reliance on overnight processing, and create a foundation for smarter, always-on financial operations.

Below, we’ll explain what the NPP is, what’s different about its infrastructure, and how businesses are starting to build on it.

What’s in this article?

• What is the NPP?
  
• How does the NPP provide real-time payments?
  
• What are the benefits of using the NPP?
  
• What limitations affect NPP adoption or performance?
  
• How can organizations decide when to integrate with the NPP?
  
• How Stripe Payments can help
  

What is the NPP?

The NPP is a national system that connects more than 100 financial institutions across Australia to process real-time payments. The system was launched in 2018 after a collaboration between the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and 12 authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) to modernize how money moves domestically.

The NPP lets money flow instantly between accounts at different banks at any time of day, including weekends and holidays. Payments typically arrive within seconds and are accessible immediately.

The NPP has features that make payments easy to send and simple to process, such as PayID, which lets people use an email or phone number instead of a Bank State Branch (BSB) and account number. And the NPP supports rich data standards that let payments carry useful information (e.g., payroll date, tax details).

How does the NPP provide real-time payments?

Real-time payments are possible because the NPP runs continuously and processes each payment the moment it’s made. There’s no batching, cutoffs, or “business hours.” The RBA’s Fast Settlement Service (FSS) settles each NPP payment instantly between banks—so when a payment lands, it’s available immediately.

The NPP is changing how people send money. Instead of having to remember BSBs, customers can use something simpler: a phone number, an email, or an Australian Business Number (ABN). When someone sends money using a PayID, the platform verifies and routes the payment to the correct destination, which reduces errors and simplifies the user experience.

The NPP includes services such as Osko and PayTo. Osko powers instant sender-initiated payments, while PayTo enables real-time, authorized pull payments.

What are the benefits of using the NPP?

The NPP gives businesses immediate access to verified, settled funds, complete with helpful data.

Here are the benefits of using the NPP:

• Payments are confirmed instantly. That can improve liquidity, reduce reliance on credit, and make just-in-time payments feasible.

• The NPP runs 24/7. You’ll have flexibility to work outside traditional banking hours, which means you can run payroll on a Sunday or settle invoices on public holidays without delay.

• The NPP is built with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 20022 messaging, which means each NPP transfer allows up to 280 characters of information that can help with reconciliation.

What limitations affect NPP adoption or performance?

Despite its technical advantages, the NPP has yet to see comprehensive adoption. There are several reasons for this:

Lack of awareness

Even with broad NPP availability, many businesses haven’t made the switch, often because they’re unfamiliar with the system. More than half of surveyed businesses were unaware the legacy Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS) is being replaced by the NPP.

Integration challenges for businesses

Some large organizations still rely on batch-based systems and scheduled payment cycles. Moving to real-time payments can require cumbersome updates to these systems. About 40% of businesses surveyed in 2025 said they expect the process to require substantial effort, which might explain why only about 20% have switched so far.

Fraud and finality concerns

Because NPP payments settle instantly and can’t be reversed, banks and users have had to adapt to faster fraud detection and resolution. Scams exploiting PayID have drawn attention, though users can protect themselves.

How can organizations decide when to integrate with the NPP?

Integrating with the NPP is a question of timing and fit. You’ll want to consider where real-time capabilities can improve your systems. Follow these steps to decide whether the NPP is right for your business:

1. Start with urgency

If your business needs to move funds quickly (e.g., payouts, refunds, supplier payments), real-time payments reduce lag time and exceptions and support overhead.

2. Look for timing triggers

Upgrading finance systems or launching new payment flows can be ideal situations to add the NPP, especially if your provider or bank offers access via an application programming interface (API). Integration is easier when it’s part of a broader systems update.

3. Watch for adoption signals

If there’s demand, such as customers asking to pay via PayID or partners expecting faster settlement, it’s smart to move early. Don’t wait for expectations to become nonnegotiables.

How Stripe Payments can help

Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payments solution that helps any business—from scaling startups to global enterprises—accept payments online, in person, and around the world.

Stripe Payments can help you:

• Optimise your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with prebuilt payment user interfaces (UIs), access to 125+ payment methods, and Link, a wallet built by Stripe.

• Expand to new markets faster: Reach customers worldwide and reduce the complexity and cost of multicurrency management with cross-border payment options, available in 195 countries across 135+ currencies.

• Unify payments in person and online: Build a unified commerce experience across online and in-person channels to personalise interactions, reward loyalty, and grow revenue.

• Improve payments performance: Increase revenue with a range of customizable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorisation rates.

• Move faster with a flexible, reliable platform for growth: Build on a platform designed to scale with you, with 99.999% historical uptime and industry-leading reliability.

Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments, or get started today.