The rapid rate of change in the payments ecosystem has been extraordinary. Driving the momentum are two primary forces – digital currencies and AI –which have the power to radically disrupte the payments space for banks and retailers.
Combined with AI-enabled and embedded commerce models as the other big disrupter, banks and retailers will need to move quickly to adapt to this new environment or face the risk of obsolesence. This puts significant urgency behind efforts to rapidly modernise payment infrastructure, processes and operations across both sectors.
Based on a global survey of 500 banking leaders and 500 retail executives, Partnering for payment modernisation explains how leading banks and retailers are building partnerships to drive rapid progress, achieve innovation and meet customer expectations. KPMG's report provides payment decision-makers with the data and ideas they need to keep pace with the rapid changes now at play across the payment ecosystem.
About the report
With rapid growth in customer expectations and new payment options, it is critical for banks and retailers to evolve their payment modernisation strategies to provide instant, seamless and secure transactions.
Find out more.
What are Australia's focus areas for modernising payments?
The Account to Account (A2A) payments transition is entering a reset phase, with AusPayNet removing the June 2030 end‑date for retiring Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS) until a clearer roadmap and real progress are established. This shift creates space for a more credible, deliverables‑first modernisation strategy built around a shared future‑state vision, solving the hard problems of bulk and direct debit replacement, and embedding resilience into the design.
Rather than targeting dates, Australia’s focus now turns to 'readiness gates' – capabilities like bulk payment functionality, operational resilience and proven end‑user adoption – all essential for restoring momentum in the shift beyond BECS. At the same time, PayTo and Consumer Data Right (CDR) action initiation are pushing Australia into a new era of consent‑driven, orchestrated payments that require a modern, method‑agnostic infrastructure layer.
Scams, regulatory expansion and the rising urgency of quantum‑safe security mean trust and resilience must be engineered into every step of this future state.
Together, these shifts make it clear that the modernisation is no longer optional; Australia must embrace connected ecosystems, co‑creating solutions, and working with partners to accelerate innovation and deliver better customer experiences.
What do executives think about modernising payments?
- Banking
- Retail
Three key actions for banks and retailers
Methodology
KPMG International surveyed 500 banks and 500 retailers between the 8 September and 30 October 2025 to assess their progress on payment modernisation, as well as their motivations, objectives, investment expectations and challenges.
Our survey asked respondents to rate their levels of progress against a range of modernisation pillars, and we used their responses to calculate their overall maturity with respondents in the top 20th percentile ranked as ‘leaders’ and those in the bottom 20th percentile ranked as ‘beginners’. In both the banking and retail sectors, the leaders tended to be those with revenues greater than US$10 billion. In the banking sector, neobanks reported the highest proportion of leaders and in the retail sector, it was e-commerce platforms that were most likely to rank as leaders.
Forty percent of retail respondents were based in Asia Pacific, 35 percent in the EMEA region and 25 percent in the Americas. The banking sample represented 36 percent of respondents from the Americas, 34 percent from the EMEA region and 31 percent from Asia Pacific.
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Partnering for payment modernisation
How leading banks and retailers are unlocking the future of payments
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