Connolly at AFIA on 20 October: The Payments Questions Awaiting the RBA's Policy Chief

Sonal Goyal

14 October 2026 10:14 PM AEDT

Connolly at AFIA on 20 October: The Payments Questions Awaiting the RBA's Policy Chief

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Key Highlights

Connolly is scheduled to speak at the AFIA conference in Sydney at 9.50 am AEDT on 20 October 2026.
He appears less than three weeks after card surcharges were removed and interchange caps lowered.
Transparency changes are still scheduled for 1 April 2027, and the future of BECS and other A2A issues remains unresolved.

Ellis Connolly, the Reserve Bank's Head of Payments Policy Department, is scheduled to take part in a fireside chat at the AFIA conference in Sydney on 20 October 2026, less than three weeks after card surcharges were removed and interchange caps lowered.

The timing is notable. On 1 October 2026, card surcharges were removed on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa, and lower domestic interchange caps came into force. On 20 October, at 9.50 am AEDT, the official who heads the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) payments policy department is scheduled to appear in a fireside chat at the AFIA conference in Sydney.

What Connolly will say is not known in advance, and this article does not attempt to predict it. What can be set out is the state of the RBA's payments agenda as the appearance approaches: what has already changed, what is scheduled to change, and which issues the RBA's Payments System Board has flagged as unresolved.

The card reforms, three weeks on

The reforms flowing from the RBA's review of retail payments regulation, announced on 31 March 2026, are the most immediate backdrop. Most changes, including surcharge removal and lower domestic interchange caps, took effect on 1 October 2026.

The surcharge ban covers eftpos, Mastercard and Visa transactions on debit, prepaid and credit cards. American Express also removed surcharging from 1 October, although Amex is not formally regulated by the RBA. The ban applies only to surcharges added because a customer pays by card. Weekend and public holiday surcharges, booking fees, service fees and the fees payment service providers charge for terminals and processing are not affected.

The interchange changes were:

the domestic debit and prepaid cap lowered to 8 cents (or 0.16 per cent ad valorem), from 10 cents or 0.2 per cent;
the domestic consumer credit cap lowered to 0.3 per cent from 0.8 per cent, with the benchmark removed;
the commercial credit cap kept at 0.8 per cent, with the benchmark removed; and
a new single 1.0 per cent cap on transactions using foreign-issued cards, previously unregulated.

The RBA expects these to lower wholesale card payment costs for merchants "by around $910 million per year", with small businesses expected to benefit most. It had estimated that "Consumers are estimated to be paying $1.6 billion of a total $1.8 billion in card payment surcharges" a year on designated networks.

The RBA's FAQ addresses a range of practical issues. Business-to-business payments are not exempt unless network rules or law provide otherwise; not-for-profits are not exempt; invoices issued before 1 October but paid on or after that date may no longer be surcharged; taxis remain under state and territory regulation; and non-card surcharges are not regulated by the RBA. The RBA has informed governments and price regulators about businesses with regulated prices. On exemptions, the FAQ states: "Whether any exemptions are available is a decision for each card network, not the RBA."

Transparency changes still to come

Not every part of the review has been implemented. Some payment-cost transparency changes take effect on 1 April 2027.

The review also requires designated card networks to publish aggregate interchange and scheme fee data quarterly, broken down by domestic and international, debit and credit, card-present and card-not-present, and tokenised transactions. The RBA has said the tokenised breakdown is intended to shed light on mobile wallet fees.

For businesses, the FAQ notes that card costs "can be reflected in a business's overall pricing", and that businesses can review payment plans, shop around for providers and offer discounts for particular payment methods, with ACCC guidance on pricing displays applying.

Beyond the card terminal

The payments agenda extends well past cards. When the Payments System Board met on 27 August 2026, it welcomed the account-to-account (A2A) Payments Vision, while identifying issues to resolve. They are the future of the Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS), resilience and contingency, bulk and pull payments, account reach gaps and standardisation. If industry cannot make coordinated progress, "the Board encourages the RBA to consider further action to achieve outcomes in the public interest."

The Board also endorsed a consultation on the role of RITS in tokenised markets and money, following Project Acacia. And it noted the commencement on 27 August of the Cash Distribution Framework Act 2026, "a significant step towards supporting the long-term sustainability of the cash distribution system", under a framework that is market-led with a crisis backstop.

Market infrastructure also featured. The Board said "significant challenges related to ASX governance, culture and risk management require sustained focus", while noting progress on CHESS resilience and the safe delivery of CHESS Replacement Release 1. Separately, in an RBA release on 23 September assessing ASX's facilities, Brad Jones, Assistant Governor (Financial System), said: "ASX is still not meeting the RBA's expectations in several important areas."

Where the appearance sits in a crowded fortnight

Connolly's fireside chat is one of several scheduled RBA events in the second half of October. The RBA Annual Report 2026 is scheduled for release after 3.00 pm AEDT on 15 October, followed at 11.30 am AEDT on 16 October by the overview and draft papers from the RBA's 2026 conference on monetary policy trade-offs. Assistant Governor (Financial Markets) Christopher Kent is scheduled for an interview on News 24 with Ross Greenwood at 11.00 am AEDT on 18 October and a fireside chat at the Commonwealth Bank's Global Markets Conference in Sydney at 10.05 am AEDT on 19 October.

On the monetary policy side, September CPI data is scheduled for 28 October, and the next cash rate decision is scheduled for 2.30 pm on 3 November 2026. Connolly's appearance is the payments-policy event in that run.

The bottom line

Ellis Connolly is scheduled to speak at the AFIA conference in Sydney at 9.50 am AEDT on 20 October 2026. He appears three weeks after card surcharges were removed and interchange caps lowered, with transparency changes still scheduled for 1 April 2027, and with the Payments System Board having flagged the future of BECS and other A2A issues as unresolved. Which of these topics he addresses is a matter for the event itself.

This appearance was scheduled for 20 October 2026 as of the article date. Its remarks and policy implications cannot be known in advance. Regulatory measures also have different commencement dates.

FAQs

Q: Who is Ellis Connolly?

A:He is the Reserve Bank’s Head of Payments Policy Department.

Q: When and where is he scheduled to speak?

A:At a fireside chat at the AFIA conference in Sydney at 9.50 am AEDT on 20 October 2026.

Q: Which topics will he address?

A:That is a matter for the event itself. The article outlines the card reforms, transparency changes still to come and wider payments issues as context.

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