In an Australian first for a major bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has made PayTo payments and digital authorisation capabilities available to customers to help manage new payment agreements more securely within CBA’s infrastructure.

A new initiative from New Payments Platform Australia (NPPA), CBA customers will now have the ability to view, authorise, pause or cancel payment agreements within the security of the CommBank App and NetBank.

The strategy seeks to help payers have more control over payments that leave their CBA bank accounts, such as regular bills, subscriptions and one-off payments, as well as to reduce fraud with more secure authorisation.

This comes after CBA partnered with fintech, Paypa Plane, to complete a trial of PayTo with two business customers, Telstra and The Shepherd Centre.

“PayTo has the potential to revolutionise payments in Australia,” Ethan Teas, Executive General Manager of Payments at CBA, said.

“We’re delighted to be at the forefront of this as the first major Australian bank to offer the PayTo capabilities for our payer customers, and to trial the capabilities for our business customers.

“Innovation is at the core of what we’re doing to support Australians to pay and to get paid and PayTo could set the foundations for significant innovation across Australia’s payments system.

“The trial transactions we have undertaken with two of our business customers are proof of the benefits that could be on offer to the broader business community, and we look forward to working with our partners to make PayTo a force for positive change in the months and years ahead.”

CBA business customers will be able to create and accept PayTo payment agreements as an alternate method to direct debit and third-party payments when it is fully launched post-pilot testing. The initiative will also cut costs and time delays due to its near real-time payment processing, will provide more information than traditional payment methods and ensures payments are fully authorised as part of the agreement.

“We will continue to invest and innovate, working with our partners, to deliver exceptional payment experiences for our customers,” Teas said.

“The NPP, and in particular PayID® and PayTo, creates the opportunity to build digital, safe, fast, and efficient payment experiences that delight and benefit our customers.”