Standards/payid
PayID
Overview
Note on classification. This entry was originally bucketed as a QR standard, but payid is not a QR-symbol standard — it is a payment-addressing proxy. Reclassified as
Proxy network. The wiki shows no playground because there is no QR payload to encode; the slug is retained to avoid breaking incoming links.
PayID is Australia's proxy-addressing service introduced with npp (New Payments Platform) on 13 February 2018 — enabling Australians to use mobile number, email, ABN (Australian Business Number), or Organisation ID as identifiers for cross-bank instant payments, replacing BSB + account-number entry [1, 2, [au-cro]]. PayID is structurally the NPP's addressing capability + similar in concept to Singapore's PayNow proxies (mobile/NRIC/UEN), India's UPI VPAs, UK Open Banking, but Australia's specific implementation.
By April 2025, PayID had 25+ million registered identifiers; by mid-2025, 27+ million registrations [2]. The structural distinction: PayID payee-confirmation — when entering recipient PayID, the system displays the recipient's name for verification before payment confirmation — anti-mistaken-payment + anti-fraud feature integrated at the protocol level. PayID is one of the most widely adopted real-time-payment identifiers globally. NPP processes ~155 million real-time payments per month — substantial fraction PayID-addressed. PayID + Osko + PayTo together form Australia's comprehensive NPP-overlay-service ecosystem under Australian Payments Plus (AP+) governance.
History
13 February 2018 — NPP + PayID + Osko launch [1, 2]:
- Public NPP availability.
- PayID as addressing capability.
- Osko as first NPP overlay (BPAY).
First year — 2.5M+ PayIDs [2]:
- 1M in first 4 weeks.
April 2025 — 25M+ registrations [2]:
- Continued growth.
Mid-2025 — 27M+ registrations [transfi]:
- Among most-adopted real-time-payment identifiers globally.
2022+ — AP+ consolidation [[ap-plus-context]]:
- NPP + BPAY + eftpos → Australian Payments Plus.
Technical specification
PayID is NPP's proxy-addressing service [1, 2]:
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Operator | NPP Australia Limited (now AP+) |
| Launch | 13 February 2018 |
| Underlying rail | NPP (New Payments Platform) |
| Currency | AUD |
| Identifier types | Mobile, email, ABN, Organisation ID |
| Registrations (Apr 2025) | 25M+ |
| Registrations (mid-2025) | 27M+ |
| Payee confirmation | Yes (recipient name displayed before payment) |
| Replaces | BSB + account number entry |
PayID payee-confirmation feature [2]:
- Distinctive protocol-level anti-mistaken-payment + anti-fraud protection.
- Recipient name shown before payment authorisation.
Multi-identifier flexibility [2]:
- Mobile (consumer-common).
- Email (consumer-common).
- ABN (business).
- Organisation ID (business).
Use cases
P2P transfers (cardinal use) [1]: Replace BSB + account-number entry.
Business payments via ABN [2]: Companies receive via ABN.
Government services via Organisation ID [2]: Public-sector payments.
Payroll [2]: Employer-employee.
E-commerce checkout [2]: Pay-by-PayID at checkout.
Charity donations [2]: PayID-addressed.
Implementations & ecosystem
Operator: NPP Australia (AP+).
Underlying rail: npp (New Payments Platform).
Participating institutions: 100+ Australian banks + financial institutions + fintechs.
Sister NPP overlays: Osko (BPAY), PayTo (mandate-based).
Fun facts
- 27M+ registrations (mid-2025): Among most-adopted real-time-payment identifiers globally.
- Payee-confirmation feature: Protocol-level anti-fraud — recipient name shown before payment.
- 4 identifier types: Mobile + email + ABN + Org ID — broader than peer systems.
- 1M in first 4 weeks post-launch: Rapid initial adoption.
- PayID + Osko + PayTo + ConnectID: Comprehensive AP+ product family.
- 155M monthly NPP payments: Many PayID-addressed.
- ABN-as-payment-identifier: Distinctive Australian feature.
- 2018 launch alongside NPP: Co-launched with foundational rail.
Comparison
| Feature | PayID (AU) | PayNow (SG) | UPI VPA (IN) | bizum (ES) | UK Open Banking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifier types | Mobile + email + ABN + Org ID | Mobile + NRIC + UEN | UPI ID (custom alias) | Mobile | Customer bank-account |
| Registrations | 27M+ (mid-2025) | n/a | Hundreds of millions | n/a | n/a |
| Payee-confirmation | Protocol-level yes | Bank-by-bank | NPCI-mediated | n/a | Confirmation of Payee being mandated |
| Launch | Feb 2018 | Jul 2017 | 2016 | Oct 2016 | 2018 |
| Underlying rail | NPP | FAST | NPCI proprietary | Iberpay SCT Inst | UK Faster Payments |
Status
Active, near-saturation [1, 2]:
- NPP Australia (AP+) operator.
- 27M+ registrations (mid-2025).
- Mobile + email + ABN + Org ID identifiers.
- Payee-confirmation anti-fraud feature.
Sources
- 1 NPP — AP+
- 2 NPP — Wikipedia
- 3 How to Register PayID
- [au-cro]
reports/countries/AU-australia.md
Deployments
Found in the following country reports (grep across reports/countries/):
- AU — AU-australia.md