Defined Terms and Documents    

Reserve Bank of Australia:         

•  Brief History of the RBA

•  Reserve Bank of Australia - Our Role

•  Extensive Powers of the RBA- "The Reserve Bank is the principal regulator of the payments system through the PSB.":
   -  Reserve Bank Act 1959
   -  Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998
   -  Statement on the Conduct of Monetary Policy

•  Some facts about the Reserve Bank of Australia 

•  Parliamentary Bestowed Mandate

•  Australia's Principal Regulator of the Payments System

•  Monetary Policy

•  Payments System Board

•  RBA has made efforts to divest itself of its Parliamentary Bestowed Mandate by seeking to pass its obligations to regulate 'inter alia' interest rates on Credit Cards

•  Australian Retailers Association - Submission to RBA 2001 -  Credit Card Schemes in Australia

•  Response by the Australian Retailer’s Association (“ARA”) to Australian Banker’s Association (“ABA”) Submission to the Reserve Bank of Australia (“RBA”)  -  28 August 2001

•  LOAN RATE STICKINESS: THEORY AND EVIDENCE  -  RBA 1992

• The Reserve Bank of Australia and Credit Cards - Peter Mair, Finance and Banking Writer, Crikey.com  

• RBA - Card Payments Regulation: From Wallis to Murray

• RBA has done naught to require Credit Card Issuers to lower interest rates in line with the fall in the Cash Rate

• RBA has made efforts to divest itself of its Parliamentary Bestowed Mandate

• RBA brought credit card schemes in Australia under its regulatory oversight - Media Release 12 April 2001

• RBA reforms to card payment systems

• RBA Submission to the Senate Inquiry into Matters Relating to Credit Card Interest Rates - August 2015  -  Submission 20

• Reforming the ‘dog’s breakfast of federalism'

• Regulatory madness in the banking world

• Reasons for the Decision to Designate the EFTPOS Payment System

• RBA's Reform of Credit Card Schemes in Australia:  "A Consultation Document" – Dec 2001

Senior representatives of the RBA, APRA, ASIC and the Department of the Treasury comprise the Council of Financial Regulators.

RBA is a company charged with the statutory duty to act in the public interest.

A description of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) by Clayton Utz:

"The RBA is a statutory authority performing the country’s central banking functions.  The Bank is wholly owned by the Australian Federal Government and maintained assets of more than A$57,177 million as at October 2013.The RBA has two broad areas of responsibility: monetary policy and financial stability.

The RBA’s monetary policy is primarily directed at maintaining inflation rates at the level most conducive to sustainable growth. The RBA’s financial stability policy aims to prevent excessive risks in the financial system and to limit the effects of financial disturbances when they occur. Within this role, the RBA has a particular responsibility for maintaining the efficiency of the payments system. The RBA is governed by the Reserve Bank Board and the Payments System Board.

The RBA plays an active role in financial markets and the payments system and is responsible for issuing Australian currency notes. The Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations 1959 (Cth) confer upon the RBA responsibility for foreign exchange control."

Below is a extract from Interest rates and informed choice in the Australian credit card market  - December 2015 where the RBA asserts that ACCC is responsible to monitor and regulate bank interest rates, except the Overnight Cash Rate:

"1.8 Dr Edey quite rightly made the point that Australia does not regulate interest rates, and, as such, there is no interest rate regulator.  He told the committee that Australia does have 'an ACCC [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] that can investigate uncompetitive conduct if they see it, but they clearly have not seen it in this market'.3   It was put to Dr Edey that the issue was not so much whether there was uncompetitive conduct in the market, but whether regulatory settings were conducive to the promotion of sufficient competition to put downward pressure on credit card interest rates.4  In part, the committee's inquiry has been directed at understanding whether existing regulatory settings in relation to credit cards are appropriate in this respect.  More broadly, the committee has sought to determine what might be done to improve competition in the credit card market or otherwise put downward pressure on credit card interest rates."

The above extract from an address by Dr. Malcolm Edey (RBA) contradicts the below indented extracts from Reserve Bank of Australia Bulletin  -  July 1998 - Australia’s New Financial Regulatory Framework that chronicles the Reserve Bank's powers, set out in the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998, that allow the Reserve Bank to undertake more direct regulation of ‘designated’ payments systems to "... promote competition in the market for payments services, consistent with the overall stability of the financial system..." when it judges it to be "in the public interest" which may involve the imposition of access rules or operating standards for participants in such systems:

"The new Payments System Board is responsible for the Bank’s payments system policy, the objectives of which are:

•     controlling risk in the financial system arising from the operation of the payments system;

•     promoting the efficiency of payments systems; and

•     promoting competition in the market for payments services, consistent with the overall stability of the financial system.

The Bank’s powers in this area, set out in the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998, allow it to undertake more direct regulation of ‘designated’ payments systems when it judges it to be in the public interest. This may involve the imposition of access rules or operating standards for participants in such systems. The Act also provides a framework for regulation of purchased payment facilities, such as travellers cheques and stored-value cards."