ASIC to clean up ePayments with updated Code

The corporate regulator will aim to improve the existing code around electronic payments including ATM, EFTPOS, credit and debit card transactions, online payments, and internet and mobile banking with a consultation paper released Friday.

The proposed updates are designed to ensure the code remains “effective and relevant to consumers and subscribers” in several areas, ASIC states, including compliance monitoring and data reporting, mistaken internet payments, unauthorised transactions and complaints handling.

“The review also considers options for modernising the Code, to reflect changes in the field of electronic payments since the Code’s last review,” ASIC continues.

The ePayments Code provides a set of standards and principles that most banks, credit unions and building societies, as well as some providers of electronic payment services, subscribe to in Australia.

Subscription remains voluntary, however groups such as the Council of Financial Regulators have put pressure on the government to give ASIC the power to make subscription mandatory.

ASIC is responsible for administering the code. This will be the first comprehensive review undertaken of the code since 2010.

Subscriptions can be made via the ASIC website and are due by Friday July 2, 2021.