Australian Payments Plus & Thoughtworks team to fuel PayTo adoption

By Gloria Mathias

Thoughtworks, a global technology consultancy, has joined Australian Payments Plus (AP+), Australia’s domestic payments organisation operating the BPAY, eftpos and NPP payment schemes, to develop new customer experience (CX) industry guidelines for PayTo.

PayTo is the latest innovation from AP+. It provides a fast and secure way to move funds between bank accounts instantly. PayTo can be used for everyday transactions such as utility bills, flight bookings, subscriptions and digital wallet top-ups.

This is the third time Thoughtworks has partnered with AP+ to bring together CX guidelines. This partnership furthers AP+’s efforts to shape the future of payments in Australia by effectively responding to bold new technologies and shifting customer needs.

Thoughtworks played a pivotal role in supporting AP+’s goal of ensuring the widespread adoption of PayTo across Australia. The new industry CX guidelines have also been key to this adoption.

“AP+ was delighted to partner with Thoughtworks to deliver CX guidelines to encourage take-up of PayTo among merchants and billers. Having clarity of the end-user journey was important in helping users understand how best to offer the service to their customers,” said Katrina Stuart of Australian Payments Plus.

Thoughtworks designed the PayTo CX guideline for merchants and billers as a comprehensive, easy-to-follow blueprint that provides instructions on how to implement and present the payment solution to customers. This ensures a consistent and confident customer experience. As of today, more than 90% of retail banking transaction accounts across Australian financial institutions have enabled PayTo.

Ian Kelsall, product principal for BFSI and FinTech, Thoughtworks Australia, said, “Thoughtworks has been a long-term partner for NPPA and now Australia Payments Plus. We have helped them bring the vision of PayTo to life by developing guidelines that enable consumers, banks, merchants, and payment service providers to adopt this industry standard, further transforming the future of Australia’s payment sector.”