This week, leaders from across Australia’s payments ecosystem joined us in Sydney for AP+’s third annual Beyond Tomorrow summit. 

Our biggest summit yet, the event brought together more than 700 policymakers, regulators, government, merchants, financial institutions and innovators to explore how payments infrastructure can support Australia’s long-term economic progress in an increasingly complex global environment. 

One theme carried throughout the day: payments are central to everyday economic activity, supporting productivity and underpinning trust in a digital economy. 

The event reinforced the importance of trusted and secure sovereign payments infrastructure. These systems are critical to resilience and security, while also enabling competition, supporting innovation, and strengthening Australia’s long-term economic independence. 

The quiet but powerful impact of innovation in payments is already visible.   

• TAFE Queensland shared how they are using the NPP to better support their student community by improving payment visibility and security and helping students manage their finances in real time.  

• bp Australia shared how they are leveraging real-time payments to support their network of independently operated service stations (many family-owned), improving cash flow and giving franchisees greater certainty and control over day-to-day operations. 

• GT Insurance explained how PayTo has helped them to put trust at the centre of the payments experience – reducing friction, improving certainty and delivering better customer outcomes.  

We also heard how eftpos, Australia’s local debit card network, is increasing choice and transparency for merchants. By enabling businesses like Western Union and Fat Zebra to facilitate transactions more cost-effectively, supporting them and their customers to manage costs and stay competitive. 

The conversation then turned to the future of digital money. We heard from the RBA on some early insights from Project Acacia and the use cases that have successfully explored digital money including stablecoins and tokenised assets.  

Trust was a central theme throughout the day but nowhere more evident than in the insights Telstra shared on its role as critical infrastructure and its integration of ConnectID which enables a faster, more seamless sign-up experience for services like prepaid mobile, while reducing the amount of personal data exchanged, helping to lower fraud risk.  

As more of the economy moves online, the opportunity to strengthen trust, enhance security and deliver better digital experiences for Australians has never been more important. 

As the day closed, one message stood out: powering Australia’s progress requires a degree of balance between innovation and resilience to ensure that trust is maintained. 

The foundations are firmly in place. Maintaining momentum and allowing Australia to leverage the significant opportunity ahead of us will depend on continued coordination across industry, innovators, regulators and policymakers. 

Lynn Kraus