Key Highlights

  • The RBA intends to release regulatory priorities by the end of 2026, followed by consultation on prioritised issues by mid-2027.
  • A foreign card interchange cap and some transparency changes take effect on 1 April 2027.
  • Payments System Board meetings are scheduled for 19 November 2026 and 24 February 2027.

The Reserve Bank has put two markers on the calendar for its review of payments regulation, and knowing what each one is, and is not, helps make sense of the process ahead.

Regulatory reviews rarely move in a straight line from question to answer. They tend to proceed in stages: an initial call for views, a period of sifting through responses, a decision about what matters most, and then deeper consultation on the chosen issues before any rules change.

The Reserve Bank of Australia's Review of Payments System Regulation is following that pattern. In her opening statement to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee on 28 October 2026, Governor Michele Bullock set out two dates that now frame the next stretch of the review. The first is the end of 2026. The second is mid-2027.

This article maps both milestones, the steps that led to them, and the other payments dates that fall in between.

The review's opening move was an Issues Paper released in June 2026. Issues papers are designed to frame questions rather than answer them, inviting industry, consumer groups and others to say where they think the regulatory framework needs attention.

Stakeholders took up the invitation, and the RBA has published their submissions. The Governor told the committee that the topics raised included mobile wallets, three-party card schemes, account-to-account payments and agentic commerce.

That list is a summary of what was raised, not a list of what the RBA has decided to act on. The distinction is central to understanding the two milestones that follow.

Milestone one: priorities by the end of 2026

The Governor's statement was direct: "We intend to release regulatory priorities by the end of 2026".

A priorities statement is a filtering step. Having received submissions on a wide range of issues, the RBA must decide which ones warrant further work. Some may be judged pressing; others may be set aside or deferred. The release will indicate where the RBA intends to concentrate its regulatory attention.

Based on the process the Governor described, the end-2026 release is not presented as a set of final rules. It is the point at which the agenda is chosen. The detailed work comes afterwards.

There is one Payments System Board meeting on the RBA calendar before the end of 2026, on 19 November. The calendar does not say what will be discussed there, and readers should not assume any particular outcome from that meeting.

Between the milestones: April 2027

Running in parallel with the broader review is the final instalment of the RBA's card surcharging and interchange reforms, set out in the March 2026 Conclusions Paper from its Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging.

The first stage of those reforms has already arrived. Surcharging on debit and credit cards ended from 1 October 2026, and domestic interchange cap reductions took effect on the same date. As the Governor put it to the Senate: "Card surcharging was removed from 1 October".

The second stage lands on 1 April 2027, when a foreign card interchange cap and some transparency changes take effect. Under the transparency measures, eftpos, Mastercard, Visa and large acquirers must publish the fees they charge, and businesses are to receive standardised fee information on their statements.

The RBA calendar also lists a Payments System Board meeting on 24 February 2027, which falls between the end-2026 priorities release and the April changes.

Milestone two: consultation by mid-2027

The second date the Governor flagged was mid-2027, by which time the RBA expects to undertake further consultation on the issues it has prioritised.

This is where the detail is likely to be tested. Consultation on a specific issue typically involves setting out the problem as the regulator sees it, describing options, and inviting comment on those options. It is a more focused exercise than the broad Issues Paper of June 2026, because it concentrates on the topics selected at the priorities stage.

Again, the timing matters for interpretation. Consultation by mid-2027 is a step in the process, not the end of it. Any eventual regulatory changes arising from the review would come later, and the RBA has not given a date for them.

A timeline, and why the sequencing matters

Pulling the verified dates together gives the following sequence:

  • June 2026: Issues Paper released for the Review of Payments System Regulation.
  • 1 October 2026: Card surcharging removed; domestic interchange cap reductions take effect.
  • 19 November 2026: Payments System Board meeting.
  • By end of 2026: RBA intends to release regulatory priorities.
  • 24 February 2027: Payments System Board meeting.
  • 1 April 2027: Foreign card interchange cap and some transparency changes take effect.
  • By mid-2027: Further consultation on prioritised issues.

Seen this way, the next nine months or so contain a mix of firm implementation dates and softer process targets. The 1 April 2027 changes are fixed in the Conclusions Paper. The end-2026 and mid-2027 targets are stated intentions about the review's progress.

For businesses that accept payments, and for providers that build payment services, the staged approach offers a degree of predictability. The priorities release should signal which areas may face regulatory change, giving those affected time to prepare submissions for the later consultation.

For consumers, the direct effects of the review are further off. The most tangible recent change, the removal of debit and credit card surcharges, has already happened. The broader review is about the framework that will shape newer ways of paying, and its practical consequences will depend on which priorities are chosen.

The Governor also pointed to early market responses to the earlier reforms, telling the committee that several large providers have cut card processing fees for small businesses and that competition is showing signs of increasing. That provides some context for how the RBA views the effect of its interventions so far, although it does not indicate what the review will recommend.

The bottom line

The RBA has given itself two process milestones: regulatory priorities by the end of 2026, and further consultation on those priorities by mid-2027. Between them sits a fixed implementation date, 1 April 2027, for foreign card interchange and transparency changes left over from the surcharging reforms.

The end-2026 release will show which of the issues raised by stakeholders the RBA intends to pursue. Mid-2027 is when those chosen issues are expected to be examined in more depth. Neither milestone is a final decision, and anyone tracking the review may find it worth reading each release as one step in a longer process.