In 2023, on the 18-19 September Cuscal held its annual anticipated thought leadership event on the 18th and 19th of September 2023.
This exclusive, invite-only, two-day conference allowed our clients to hear from both local and international experts at the Winx Stand at the Royal Randwick Racecourse. The focus was on the latest data and payment trends, including real-time payments, fraud and scams, global economic outlook, social engineering, and innovative customer solutions that are shaping the industry.
The theme for Curious Thinkers 2023 was: REIMAGINE THE FUTURE: UNLEASH THE POWER OF DATA, DIGITAL, AND REAL-TIME TO ENHANCE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS
A huge thank you to all of our speakers who made this Curious Thinkers 2023 a resounding success. Their insights and expertise provided invaluable knowledge and inspiration to all our clients. And thanks to Synechron for kindly sponsoring the pre-dinner drinks on Monday 18 September 2023.
Watch the event wrap up and explore more about the agenda and speakers from Curious Thinkers 2023.
Author: Marketing Team
Cuscal announces changes to Executive Leadership Team
Sydney, 16 February 2024
Cuscal Limited (Cuscal) confirms that after ten years with the business, Bianca Bates has resigned from her role as the Deputy CEO at Cuscal to take on a new position at Smartgroup Corporation Limited (ASX: SIQ).
Bianca held many positions within Cuscal over her tenure and led Cuscal’s operating model’s transformation, client base diversification, and successful investment in new technology and products.
Craig Kennedy, Managing Director at Cuscal, said:
In the past ten years, Bianca has played a significant role in our growth trajectory. We thank her for her outstanding contribution to Cuscal and wish her the very best in the next chapter of her career.
Bianca will remain in her current role as Deputy CEO for Cuscal until the end of the financial year. She will be integral in recruiting a new Chief Client Officer, which will commence immediately.
Cuscal also announced that Angela Powell has commenced as Cuscal’s new Chief Risk Officer, bringing over 20 years of experience in banking and financial services both domestically and internationally and expertise in risk management, governance, regulation, operational excellence, and strategic transformation.
Powering seamless and secure connections for customers. Always.
For over 60 years Cuscal has been empowering seamless and secure connections for customers, providing banks, mutuals and credit unions, payment service providers and enterprise clients with wholesale connectivity services to Australia’s entire payment ecosystem.
Discover the role Cuscal plays in enabling access to Australia’s card payments network and how we ensure the safe, secure and seamless processing of retail card payments for our clients and their customers.
Contact us to discuss your payment requirements and how we can help your business.
We’re a finalist at the APAC Payments Excellence Awards 2023
We are excited to announce that Cuscal has been named a finalist for Most Impactful Payment Industry Innovation at the 2023 APAC Payments Excellence Awards.
We were nominated for our work in delivering capability that our clients use to create new, modern, digital payment experiences that enable them to innovate and compete as early adopters. We are proud to support our clients in delivering innovative and cutting-edge payments solutions that help them best serve their customers and grow their businesses.
The APAC Payments Excellence Awards, judged by a panel of experts, recognise excellence in the payments industry in the Asia Pacific region based on innovation, collaboration, and achievements.
We are honoured to be a finalist and look forward the awards on 13 October. Congratulations to everyone who was nominated!
What our clients have to say about Cuscal as their payments partner
Throughout our history, Cuscal’s primary focus has been on empowering our clients to thrive and succeed in a digital-first economy.
As the leading independent provider of payments solutions in the Australian financial services, we have consistently demonstrated our leadership in innovation and adaptability. Our comprehensive portfolio of payments solutions, combined with our track record of delivering first-to-market solutions, has played a vital role in fostering competition in the sector and providing consumers with greater choice. Here is what some of our clients have to say about us.
We sincerely appreciate your ongoing partnership and the trust you have placed in our services.
Curious Thinkers 2022 – a look back
Cuscal held its annual flagship thought leadership event, Curious Thinkers, on 26-27 July 2022.
2022’s theme for Curious Thinkers was Shaping the Future: Addressing today’s challenges with tomorrow’s technology. The keynote speakers and panel presentations focussed on how our clients can harness innovation and digital technologies to remain at the forefront of a highly competitive and rapidly evolving market.
A big thank you to all our amazing speakers who took time to share their insights and thought-provoking ideas. We also want to thank our clients, partners and associates who joined us for the event.
Cuscal signals commitment to Australia’s Open Data economy through strategic investment in Basiq
Sydney, 10 March 2023
Cuscal Limited (Cuscal), one of Australia’s largest independent providers of payments, banking and regulated data has entered into a binding agreement, under which Cuscal will acquire a material controlling interest in Braavos Corporation Pty Ltd, the parent company of Basiq Pty Ltd (Basiq), a leading Data and Open Banking API platform, subject to customary conditions. A further update will be provided upon completion. This acquisition represents a significant and strategic investment by Cuscal in the future state of the Open Data economy. Bringing together some of the industry’s leading Consumer Data Right (CDR) and payment systems to accelerate the development of new services and customer experiences in partnership with our clients that will enable the convergence of payments, data and digital identity.
Basiq’s deep expertise in financial data aggregation and history of providing tools required to acquire and analyse financial data securely, are complementary to Cuscal’s payments experience and existing CDR solutions.
Basiq will continue to operate as a stand-alone business within the Cuscal Group. It is envisaged that there will be no material change to the current structure of the team at Basiq or to Cuscal’s regulated data business. Basiq will continue to provide clients and the broader industry with access to consented financial data and all the tools required to uncover insights through Basiq’s platform while collaborating closely with Cuscal on enabling new high-value use cases, including those that are made possible by CDR-powered Action Initiations.
Commenting on the acquisition, Craig Kennedy, Cuscal’s Managing Director said: “Today marks an exciting new chapter for Cuscal, as we fast-track our maturity in enabling the Open Data economy and cement our position as a leading provider of Payments and Regulated Data services in Australia.”
“Together with Basiq we have unmatched expertise and capabilities with respect to the combination of payments, data, and the CDR. We look forward to unlocking the full potential of these assets for the mutual benefit of our clients and the wider industry.”
CEO and Founder of Basiq, Damir Ćuća, added: “Using data-only solutions is helpful, but when combined with payments, the possibilities are limitless. Data is essential in making smarter payment decisions and with Cuscal’s expertise in payment processing we can create more innovative solutions that benefit end consumers.”
About Cuscal Limited (Cuscal)
For more than 50 years, Cuscal has championed competition in banking and payments in Australia. More recently, Cuscal has moved beyond banking and payments into the broader data economy. Drawing upon extensive experience managing payments data that is digital, regulated, must always be secure, and flows seamlessly between consumers and enterprise. As an accredited data recipient (ADRBNK2019) and the provider of compliant data holder solutions, Cuscal provides data holders and data recipients access to a suite of secure and robust capabilities for the collection, sharing, management and storage of data subject to CDR legislation.
About Basiq
Basiq’s vision is to make finance easy. Basiq sees a world where consumers are empowered to make smarter financial decisions and can engage with their finances in new and unique ways. Basiq enables this by providing an Open Finance API platform for businesses to build innovative financial solutions. The platform facilitates the relationship between fintechs and consumers by enabling access to consented financial data and executing smart data-driven payments.
Media contact
Simone Perryman: sperryman@cuscal.com.au
Cuscal continues to empower Australia’s data economy with the acquisition of industry-leading Data Recipient and Product Verification Testing solutions
Sydney, 8 December 2022
Cuscal, Australia’s largest independent provider of payment, banking and regulated data solutions, has made its first strategic acquisition in the Open Banking and Consumer Data Right (CDR) space through the acquisition of myCDRdata from Regional Australia Bank.
The purchase of myCDRdata positions Cuscal to lead in Open Banking and CDR with immediate access to proven technology that has been successful in market and that can be utilised across Cuscal’s client base and by the wider industry quickly and at scale.
myCDRdata builds on the existing CDR solutions Cuscal delivers to its clients. Through myCDRdata, Cuscal will deliver an accredited Data Recipient solution that allows for Data Aggregation of mandated Datasets enabling market participants to deploy fit-for-purpose use cases. Additionally, myCDRdata delivers a fully operational Test Harness (myCDRdata Pro) that enables market participants to manage compliance obligations by monitoring the health, behaviour and performance of CDR APIs.
Following integration by Cuscal, myCDRdata and myCDRdata Pro capabilities will be enhanced and adapted for use by new industry sectors as the CDR continues to roll out beyond the Banking sector. This will provide all market participants, regardless of industry or data holder service, the ability to test, diagnose and solve flaws in production data holder platforms, enabling them to avoid enforcement action for non-compliance due to API failure.
myCDRdata is well recognised and respected in the industry and is a natural addition to Cuscal’s proven and reliable payments and banking technology solutions.
Cuscal’s CEO and Managing Director Craig Kennedy said: “We are excited by the opportunity to acquire this proven market leading asset from Regional Australia Bank, which will position us well to accelerate our relevance and maturity in Open Banking and CDR. We believe the convergence of data, digital identity and payments is a key growth opportunity for Cuscal, and the acquisition of myCDRdata will accelerate this strategic focus.”
Regional Australia Bank, CEO David Heine said: “Regional Australia Bank is proud to have founded this leading product in the Open Banking space. This product is a representation of the hard work and dedication Regional Australia Bank continues to demonstrate towards future driven banking. We are excited to pass the baton to Cuscal, and assure our myCDRdata customers they are in good hands.”
About Cuscal Limited (Cuscal)
For more than 50 years, Cuscal has championed competition in banking and payments in Australia. More recently, Cuscal has moved beyond banking and payments into the broader data economy. Drawing upon extensive experience managing payments data that is digital, regulated, must always be secure, and flows seamlessly between consumers and enterprise, Cuscal provides data holders and data recipients access to a suite of secure and robust capabilities for the collection, sharing, management and storage of data subject to CDR legislation.
About myCDRdata
myCDRdata includes both software assets ‘myCDRdata’ and ‘myCDRdata Pro’ for consumers and enterprise. myCDRdata is a free, secure CDR discovery service for consumers, powered by CDR compliant APIs and UI, that lets them experience how the CDR works and discover their own data. myCDRdata Pro is a product verification testing and issue rectification service designed to help data holders and CDR service providers test, diagnose and solve flaws in their production data holder services.
About Regional Australia Bank
Regional Australia Bank is a customer owned bank that has been helping regional Australians achieve their lifestyle goals for almost 50 years. Known for being flexible, personable and being able to make the complex simple.
An organisation built strongly on everything that makes regional Australia special – and providing a new standard of banking to all regional Australians. Above all, Regional Australia Bank is about building better financial relationships with its members – and that’s something that can’t often be said of the nation’s larger retail banks. The organisation has proudly donated over $2 million dollars to community groups in regional Australia in the past 12 months and is an organisation that is truly proud to support regional Australians.
Regional Australia Bank was the first organisation in Australia to become an Accredited Data Recipient (ADR) in 2020 and the first bank to both publish and receive CDR data.
Media contact
Simone Perryman, sperryman@cuscal.com.au
Over 70% of NPP Identified Institutions enabled by Cuscal now certified to provide PayTo services
Sydney, 29 November 2022
A further 10 authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) have been enabled by Cuscal to offer PayTo services to customers. This brings the total number of ADIs connected to PayTo through Cuscal to 26, covering 33 bank brands, with eight payment service providers certified to provide PayTo Payment Initiation services to businesses.
The latest ADIs to be certified by Cuscal as Payer Participants are: Australian Mutual Bank Limited, Community First Credit Union, Central Murray Credit Union, Geelong Bank, Goulburn Murray Credit Union, Illawarra Credit Union, Orange Credit Union, South West Slopes Credit Union, The Mac and Unity Bank Limited (Unity Bank, Reliance Bank).
Clients certified to offer PayTo will make services available to their customers over the coming days and weeks, based upon their individual service delivery strategies and rollout plans.
About Cuscal
Cuscal was the first directly connected participant to be certified by NPPA as an Initiating Participant and Payer Participant for PayTo Cuscal facilitated the creation, orchestration and initiation of the first live PayTo payment on the NPP.
Cuscal’s NPP solution is the only fully compliant solution currently in market delivering all the features of the NPP, with access to all the flows and options for NPP messaging and services, optimising the PayTo and real-time payment experience for customers.
With over 4 years NPP implementation experience, enabling 60+ implementations since 2018, Cuscal has helped more organisations to access the NPP than anyone else, including more than half of all financial institutions and all of the payment service providers that are providing payments on the Platform today.
About the New Payments Platform (NPP)
The NPP enables smarter, faster and simpler payments for businesses and consumers, including PayID and PayTo, a new digital way for merchants and businesses to initiate real-time payments from customers’ bank accounts. PayID is a registered trademark of NPP Australia Limited. Osko is a registered trademark of BPAY Pty Ltd. NPP Australia Limited and BPAY Pty Ltd are part of the of Australian Payments Plus group. For more information visit www.nppa.com.au
Media contact
Simone Perryman, sperryman@cuscal.com.au
Pathways to access PayTo as an Initiating Business or Payment Initiator
As more banks (and by extension millions of customers) progressively connect to the PayTo ecosystem, attention is shifting to those businesses that have been enabled as PayTo Users and the innovative use cases that they are bringing to market.
But in an ecosystem of directly and indirectly connected participants, what pathways are open to businesses to access PayTo and the New Payments Platform (NPP)? And what role do different PayTo Users play in the creation, initiation and settlement of payments?
In this article we aim to shine a light on these questions.
The PayTo ecosystem
PayTo is an interconnected network of participants that connects customers, business and their financial institutions, facilitating the creation of PayTo agreements and ensuring the smooth flow of payment initiation requests and settlement of funds in real-time.
Figure 1: PayTo participant ecosystem
While banks are instrumental when it comes to facilitating the authorisation and management of PayTo agreements by customers and settling funds when valid payment initiation requests are received, PayTo Users are the main players when it comes to the creation and initiation of PayTo agreements.
PayTo Users
In the PayTo ecosystem there are two types of PayTo Users: the Initiating Business and the Payment Initiator.
Initiating Businesses are responsible for entering into PayTo agreements with the debtor customer, defining the PayTo agreement terms that will be registered in NPPA’s Mandate Management Service (MMS) and authorised by the customer through their digital banking channel, and initiating requests for payment in accordance with the agreed terms.
Payment Initiators are responsible for the exchange of PayTo agreement creation and payment messages to/from the Initiating Businesses with the wider PayTo ecosystem, via APIs provided by the sponsoring Initiating Participant.
Initiating Participants
To access PayTo as a Payment Initiator, businesses need to be sponsored by an Initiating Participant: either a Connected Institution or an NPP Participant or Identified Institution that has been certified as a Payment Initiator.
Connected Institutions are only able to use the non-value messaging capabilities of the NPP Basic Infrastructure to create a PayTo mandate and send a Payment Initiation Request. They cannot clear or settle payments or issue or manage PayIDs.
NPP Participants and Identified Institutions that have been certified as a Payment Initiator have access to all flows and options for NPP messaging and services, delivering end-to-end payment initiation, PayID issuance and management, and clearing and settlement services through a single provider.
Clearing and settlement services can only be provided by an NPP Participant licensed by APRA as an Authorised Deposit-Taking Institution (ADI)This helps to keep payments safe because as ADIs, NPP Participants meet the prudential requirements set by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to operate in the regulated payments environment and have access to RBA settlement facilities. Like in other payment systems, the NPP Participant can sponsor other organisations to provide clearing and settlement services on their behalf, and in the NPP, these entities are referred to as Identified Institutions.
Figure 2: Cuscal NPP services compared to other directly connected participants
Why Cuscal
As the first directly connected participant to be certified by NPP Australia (NPPA) as an Initiating Participant and Payer Participant, Cuscal plays a unique role in the PayTo ecosystem.
As a certified Initiating Participant, Cuscal connects high volume and high growth businesses, payment service providers, platforms and payment facilitators to the NPP as Identified Institutions and Payment Initiators, providing access to all the features of the NPP under a sponsorship arrangement. Businesses can connect to PayTo as an Initiating Business through a Payment Initiator under a proprietary commercial arrangement with a Payment Initiator that has been connected to the Platform by Cuscal.
As a certified Payer Participant, Cuscal provides banks, credit unions and mutual banks with access to the services required to receive, process and manage PayTo agreements and payment initiation requests, as well as the infrastructure required to clear and settle payments.
At Cuscal we have been helping our clients to access Australia’s payment systems with innovative solutions for over 50 years. As the market leader in providing NPP services, with over 4 years NPP experience enabling 60+ implementations since 2018, we’ve helped more organisations to access the NPP than anyone else, including more than half of all financial institutions and all of the payment service providers that are providing payments on the Platform today.
With the launch of PayTo, Cuscal has the scale, expertise, trusted industry position and comprehensive real-time account-based payment and payment initiation solutions required by Payment Initiators.
To find out more about connecting to PayTo as a Payment Initiator and how you can provide PayTo services to your business customers, contact Cuscal.