Navigating the BECS transition: Four priority actions for corporates

Australia’s Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS), relied upon by many corporate and government entities, is scheduled to be retired in 2030.  Industry preparations for the migration to the real-time New Payments Platform (NPP) is underway, with many organisations wanting to understand what this transition means for them. BECS is a well-trusted and deeply embedded part of how many organisations operate, making its retirement a significant change that challenges many of today’s established norms. At the same time, the New Payments Platform (NPP) brings advantages such as richer data, faster processing with near real-time payment confirmation, and operational efficiencies that can help businesses perform better over time. However, the transition, and the full realisation of these benefits, will take time.

While much of the heavy lifting to enable this change will be carried out by banks, payment service providers, and Enterprise Resource Planning software (ERP) and accounting platforms, now is the time for organisations to identify their critical requirements and ensure they are fully supported as the migration path is being defined. Early engagement and preparation will help minimise risk and create opportunities to unlock efficiencies and other benefits.

Here are four early preparation areas we’re working through with our clients:

1. Review your current-state payment infrastructure and processes

You can’t assess the scope and scale of change without first understanding your current BECS payments landscape. Identifying your organisation’s critical operations and core requirements is essential to effectively plan for change and manage key dependencies.

Consider:

• What are your inbound and outbound payment journeys, including which are business critical, and which systems, processes, and teams support them?
• What is working well today, and where do you encounter errors, exceptions, or need extra processes or manual effort?
• Are you working on standard software or do you have highly customised systems and processes? Do you use manual process, secure file transfers or API integrations for your payment journeys?
• What change do you already have in plan, what is the case for change required for BECS migration, and what is the likely lead time?
• Who needs to be involved internally and externally to tackle this change and in what capacity?

This review will help you establish a clear starting point, from which you can define the types and scale of change required, identify timelines and key dependencies, and effectively plan for the migration. The degree of change for your organisation can vary significantly depending on the answers to these questions.

2. Find out what your payments partners are planning

Your banks and payment service providers already have programs in place and are developing roadmaps that will shape the extent of change you’ll experience. Speak with your banks and payment service providers now to understand their approach, what to expect and how it could impact your organisation.

Ask your banks:

• How are they approaching the migration to NPP and what should you expect in terms of impact and timing? What capabilities do they expect or prefer you to have in place?
• What happens to batch file processes? What will change, what will stay the same, and what benefits or risks do they anticipate?
• How will bank statements, reconciliation and reporting formats change?
• Are data fields and mappings changing, and do you need to plan for technical and integration uplifts?
• What does this mean for your fee plans?
• How will they support you through the change across different payment types? When and how do they expect to migrate customers like you?

Ask your payment service providers:

• What features do they expect to offer to support the move to NPP?
• When and how will these upgrades and features be made available? Will they be delivered through standard releases and patches, and what level of customisation should you expect?
• Is your current platform able to be upgraded easily? If not, what are your options?
• How do they plan to support you through the transition?

They may not have all the answers yet, but understanding what is known will help you identify your dependencies, align expectations, and plan effectively for the migration. Be prepared by understanding your own processes and knowing what is most important for your organisation.

3. Identify opportunities, not just risks.

As you look to the future state and the change required, most organisations initially focus on maintaining current capabilities and avoiding disruption to critical payments. While this is essential, approaching it solely as a compliance exercise, risks leaving value on the table. 

Ask your team:

• What is your broader organisational change roadmap, and how does BECS migration align with and support your strategic direction? For many organisations, modern and scalable architectures that are future-ready are already high on the agenda.
• Where could you or your customers benefit from real-time payment capabilities? For example, improved cashflow management, greater payment certainty, or faster payments to individuals or businesses in need, leading to better customer outcomes.
• How could enriched data in payment messages reduce manual processing, improve reconciliations, or minimise fraud and what data would you need? For many organisations the risk of keying error, or lack of information in payment messages can drive process to remedy this.
• What are your customer expectations? The expectation for real-time, data rich, frictionless experiences is present across an increasing number of payment scenarios.

The opportunities and benefits will vary by sector and organisation type. But it’s important now, to consider how real-time, data-rich payments could create value for you and your customers.

4. Develop a business case for change

It’s time to build compelling, value-driven business cases for the migration. Aligned with the third-party dependencies you’ve identified, and where uplifts are required, you should be begin defining both the business case and migration plan. This should cover:

• Cost and benefits: What will implementing NPP cost (both for the migration and ongoing operations)? What financial and non-financial benefits are expected to materialise?
• Risks and opportunities: What are the key risks to manage, how will you mitigate them, and what broader opportunities could the migration unlock?
• Migration sequence: How will you maximise benefits and minimise risks through your migration approach? What breakdown or phasing makes sense for your organisation?
• Operating model: Depending on your organisation and migration strategy, there may be an opportunity to reassess the operating model that supports your payment functions. For example, transitioning from batch-based processes to real-time, automated solutions could unlock new processes and roles that better support this shift and drive value for your organisation. 

Don’t forget to factor in the cost and eventual risk of inaction when building your business case. Those who start preparing now will not only help to shape industry solutions but gain first-mover advantage, setting customer expectations and positioning themselves as leaders in the future payments landscape.

What to do now

The industry is still shaping what the future of payments will look like and how we transition in a safe, secure and resilient way. Banks, payment service providers and end users, including corporates, all have a role to play in contributing to these outcomes.  

Baringa brings deep global payments expertise, including our experience in supporting the UK through its payments modernisation journey.  Combined with our local knowledge across Australian financial services, government and public sector and industry, as well as our capabilities in technology transformation and risk management, we’re uniquely positioned to support your organisation through this change. 

If you’d like to explore about how your organisation can best navigate the BECS transition, please get in touch.