Australia’s Big Four roll out real-time payments with Osko

Australia’s New Payments Platform is expecting a surge in transactions as the country’s Big Four banks roll out Osko, an overlay service which enables account-to-account real-time payments via e-mail and mobile phone numbers.

Launched in February this year, the NPP board and bank-backed infrastructure body Bpay have been waiting on ANZ and Westpac to resolve integration issues ahead of a nationwide campaign to promote the new service.

With the Big Four now ready to go live, Osko will be available within the online banking channel of more than 60 financial institutions, reaching over 42 million consumer and business accounts.

Using Osko, money can be sent and are received in under a minute via a PayID or BSB and account number between participating Osko banks and financial institutions. Customers can attach up to 280 characters of text or emojis to describe the payment. Over 1.9 million Australians have already signed up for a PayID and this number is expected to grwo as the service becomes ubiquitous.

Since is official launch in February, Osko has racked up more than 25 million transactions, processing $19 billion in payments. Seventy five percent of Osko payments are between individuals with an average value of $25 per transaction.

Built by Swift, the NPP is expected to form the centrepiece of the banking co-operative’s annual international operations forum, which lands in Sydney in October.

Source: Finextra