Payments Domain

Domain knowledge for Australia and New Zealand payments strategy: the regulators, the rails, the card economics, and the live 2025–27 reforms behind issuing, acquiring, interchange, surcharging, least-cost routing, account-to-account rails, and open banking. Reference knowledge rather than a workflow — it sharpens sizing, pricing, product, and regulatory reasoning, and every figure carries a verify-before-quoting rule because the rules are mid-reform.

Use when

Analyzing, sizing, pricing, designing, or advising on any AU or NZ payments product — issuing/acquiring economics, interchange, surcharging, A2A rails, open banking, or the licensing perimeter.

Structure

SKILL.md mental model + 3 references: Australia · New Zealand · card economics.

Discipline

Verify-live — every cap, threshold, and date checked against the primary regulator before it's quoted.

what’s included

Each section below is its own reference file. Open a heading to read it.

The mental model

The money flow

four-party card model; MSF split into interchange, scheme fees, margin

Who regulates what

AU vs NZ bodies across interchange, oversight, licensing, prudential, AML

Strategic levers

interchange, surcharging, routing, A2A rails, open banking, licensing

What's in flux

the 2025–27 reform snapshot for both markets

Verify-live rule

every cap, threshold, and date checked against the regulator

Country & economics references

Australia

bodies, rails, interchange & surcharging reform, PSP licensing, CDR, AML/CTF

New Zealand

bodies, rails, the Retail Payment System Act, open banking, AML/CFT

Card economics & levers

four-party model, MSF, issuing vs acquiring P&L, routing, surcharging math