The Treasury has issued an exposure draft to present legislation that may be created to regulate payment systems such as digital wallets.

The Draft can be found here. https://treasury.gov.au/consultations/c2023-452114

Ben Zyl, CEO and co-founder, Waave responded to the draft legislation by saying,

“We welcome the draft legislation. The regulation of digital wallets will be a leap forward in the shift towards a fairer and more affordable digital payments landscape for Australian merchants and consumers.

These wallets offer consumers great convenience, but it comes at a cost.

Businesses across Australia are collectively paying close to $3billion in merchant fees, and often these fees are passed onto consumers as surcharges or higher prices for goods and services.

Currently digital wallets are closed to any payment option besides card schemes (Visa, Mastercard), which come with huge fees.

Digital wallets need to be regulated to enable other payment networks to be added and encourage greater market competition, especially in light of Open Banking and the direction we are heading towards greater consumer control and value.

Consumers want the convenience, but it can’t remain a monopoly that is robbing businesses of their already tight margins.”