Excerpt of thought piece, written by Mark Godfrey, Business Manager, Randstad Technology:
The emergence of digital payments as a replacement for cash or cheques is upon us. Payments as a service, is facilitating growth in the global economy and is crucial to this adaptation. Electronic payments are growing apace everywhere on the planet and Real Time Payments transformation programs will follow internationally, replicating the UK, Singapore and very soon the program here in Australia.
Real Time Payments will form a key part of the digital revolution, which is changing the way in which the global financial services industry operates.
As Australia’s financial services organisations ready themselves for the New Payments Program, there is little doubt that Real Time Payments will be one of the key strategic areas of focus for these organisations over the course of the next five years - areas of opinion suggest Real Time Payments may be the number one priority for Australia’s banks over the next five years.
We know that Australian Payments Clearing Association's (APCA) tender for vendors interested in providing the Basic Infrastructure (BI) services for the New Payments Platform (NPP), will be finalised by the end of 2014. We also understand that many banks are planning for a ‘ramp up’ on Real Time Payments programs and resources, once the BI/payments systems provider(s) are announced. Therefore, it is pointing to a likely huge increase in demand for payments technology/project resources and talent towards the end of 2014, beginning of 2015.