Assessment of the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System

The Reserve Bank today released the 2020
Assessment of the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System
(RITS) against the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMI). The Assessment concludes that
RITS ‘observed’ all relevant Principles as at 31 March 2020, other than Operational
Risk, which was rated as ‘broadly observed’.
RITS is Australia’s high-value payments system, which is used by banks and other approved
institutions to settle their payment obligations on a real-time gross settlement basis. The
Assessment was independently prepared by the Bank’s Payments Policy Department and endorsed by the
Payments System Board.
The Assessment discusses the Bank’s ongoing initiatives to support the continued operational
stability of RITS as part of its Technology Stability Improvement Program, and recommends that the Bank
completes the implementation of this work. The Assessment also describes the actions taken by the Bank
as operator of RITS in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and notes that the recommendations made in the
2019 Assessment have been fully addressed.
Background
The Payments System Board has responsibility for the safety and stability of payment systems in
Australia. The Payments System Board’s policy is that systemically important payment systems are
expected to observe the PFMI issued by the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures and
International Organization of Securities Commissions.
RITS is owned and operated by the Bank. The Bank considers that RITS is a systemically important
payment system and has committed to conduct annual assessments of RITS against the PFMI. These
assessments are produced by the Bank’s Payments Policy Department, which is the functional area
responsible for oversight of the Australian payments system. A separate functional area, Payments
Settlements Department, is responsible for operating RITS.
For more information on the Bank’s approach to assessing systemically important payment systems,
see the Policy Statement on the Supervision and Oversight of Systemically Important Payment Systems.