Zepto, an Australian account-to-account (A2A) payments provider, has released its first PayTo Index, offering a snapshot of national PayTo adoption as the country transitions away from the Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS), which is scheduled to be phased out by 2030.
PayTo enables businesses to collect payments in real time directly from customers’ bank accounts, providing an alternative to traditional direct debits.
It operates on the New Payments Platform (NPP), Australia’s open-access infrastructure for real-time payments launched in 2018.
Between October 2023 and April 2025, Zepto settled more than 800,000 PayTo transactions, amounting to over A$511 million.
By July 2025, that figure had surpassed one million transactions, with a total value exceeding A$612 million.
The reported payment conversion rate reached 99.03%, with a median settlement time of under five seconds. Account-on-File transactions represented 70% of activity on Zepto’s platform, with recurring and one-off payments making up the remainder.
Consumer use of PayTo rose steadily, with an 80% increase in transactions between the second and third quarters of FY25.
The median consumer spend during this period was A$352.64, and the average number of transactions per active account was 6.01.
The Index highlights Red Energy, a national utility provider, as an early PayTo adopter.
According to Red Energy’s Retail Financial Controller, Anthony Young,
“Red Energy’s partnership with Zepto is about improving our customers’ experience and providing them with faster and more secure payment options. The ability to interact with our customers in real time was a big driver for us in adopting PayTo early. At the same time, PayTo is another step forward in our broader digital evolution, expanding the ways in which our customers can interact with us.”
Retailers and investment platforms were also noted as active participants, particularly in using Account-on-File for repeat transactions.
Despite increasing uptake, the Index points to ongoing barriers to wider adoption. Currently, 90% of retail A2A payments in Australia still rely on BECS.
Issues include inconsistent authorisation processes across banks, resulting in wide variability in customer conversion rates.
During the third quarter of FY25, bank conversion rates ranged from 35.88% to 73.13%, contributing to an average PayTo agreement conversion rate of 54.52%.
Other challenges include dependence on legacy billing systems and limited consumer awareness of PayTo’s benefits.
Zepto has called for coordinated action across government, banking, and industry stakeholders to accelerate adoption.
Chris Jewell, Zepto’s President and Co-Founder, said,
“Real-time payments via PayTo and the NPP aren’t just technology upgrades, they’re the foundation for a faster, safer, and more customer-centric economy. The time for true industry collaboration is now so we can enable swift PayTo adoption across the market that puts consumers first.”
Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by anankkml via Freepik
