GLOBAL PAYMENTS KNOWLEDGEISO 20022 / SWIFT / SEPA / MT / MX
PAYMENTSSIGNAL

The interactive academy for the standards, messages, and rails that move money.

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NPP (AUSTRALIA)

Unknown PayID: an NPP payment that never leaves the app

Trigger: The PayID (email, phone number or ABN) does not resolve to a valid account.

Contributor Shubham Mathure

What operations sees first: The payment stops before any debit; the payer is told the PayID could not be found.

WHERE IS THE MONEY?

Never left Riya's account — the PayID never resolved.

DID SETTLEMENT HAPPEN?

No settlement; the payment failed at address resolution.

WHO ACTS NEXT?

Riya Riya checks the exact PayID with Arjun and retries.

PLAY THE EXCEPTION

Trigger: The PayID Riya entered is not registered to any account — perhaps a mistyped mobile number — so NPP cannot find an account to pay.

STEP 1 / 4MESSAGE

Riya pays Arjun using his PayID

Riya (payer) → Bank Alfa (payer bank)

Riya sends AUD 400.00 late at night and only needs Arjun's PayID — his mobile number. She never sees or types a BSB or account number, because the PayID resolves to his account for her.

Step 1 of 4: Riya pays Arjun using his PayID

  1. 01Message
    Riya pays Arjun using his PayIDRiya (payer) → Bank Alfa (payer bank)
  2. 02Message
    NPP resolves the PayID to Arjun's accountBank Alfa (payer bank) → NPP / Fast Settlement Service (RBA)
  3. 03 · EXCEPTION PATHProcessing
    The lookup finds no registered accountNPP / Fast Settlement Service (RBA)
  4. 04 · EXCEPTION PATHMessage
    Bank Alfa is told the PayID is invalidNPP / Fast Settlement Service (RBA) → Bank Alfa (payer bank)
  5. OUTCOME
    Funds
    Never left Riya's account — no debit was booked because the PayID did not resolve.
    Settlement
    No settlement occurred; the FSS only settles a payment with a valid, resolved destination.
    Who acts next
    Riya (payer) — Riya checks Arjun's PayID (his mobile number) and re-enters the payment.
Full step-by-step text (works without JavaScript)
  1. 01Message
    Riya pays Arjun using his PayIDRiya (payer) → Bank Alfa (payer bank)

    Riya sends AUD 400.00 late at night and only needs Arjun's PayID — his mobile number. She never sees or types a BSB or account number, because the PayID resolves to his account for her.

  2. 02Message
    NPP resolves the PayID to Arjun's accountBank Alfa (payer bank) → NPP / Fast Settlement Service (RBA)

    The New Payments Platform looks up Arjun's PayID (his mobile number) and returns the account it points to at Nordbank, so the payment can be addressed without sharing a BSB or account number.

  3. 03 · EXCEPTION PATHProcessing
    The lookup finds no registered accountNPP / Fast Settlement Service (RBA)

    NPP checks the PayID registry and finds nothing linked to that mobile number. Without a resolved account the payment has no valid destination and must stop here.

  4. 04 · EXCEPTION PATHMessage
    Bank Alfa is told the PayID is invalidNPP / Fast Settlement Service (RBA) → Bank Alfa (payer bank)

    The negative resolution comes back before any money moves, so Bank Alfa can show Riya the failure and let her correct the PayID and try again.

  5. OUTCOME
    Funds
    Never left Riya's account — no debit was booked because the PayID did not resolve.
    Settlement
    No settlement occurred; the FSS only settles a payment with a valid, resolved destination.
    Who acts next
    Riya (payer) — Riya checks Arjun's PayID (his mobile number) and re-enters the payment.

THE TIMELINE

  1. 01Riya
    Enters Arjun's PayID (his mobile number) to send AUD 400.00 — no BSB or account number shared.
  2. 02NPP / Fast Settlement Service (RBA)
    Tries to resolve the PayID to Arjun's account and finds no valid mapping.

    A PayID is only useful if it maps to a real account; an unresolved handle stops the payment before money moves.

  3. 03Bank Alfa
    Never debits Riya, because the payment was never authorised; her app shows the PayID could not be found.

Resolution: NPP resolves the PayID to a real account before authorising. An unresolved handle fails the payment up front, so there is no debit and nothing to settle across the ESAs.

LEARN THE CONCEPTS

Sources for this scenario2
  1. Official requirement

    RITS, the New Payments Platform and the Fast Settlement Service ↗ — Reserve Bank of Australia · PayID addressing

    Describes Australia RITS (the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System, Australias real-time gross settlement system) and the New Payments Platform (NPP, launched February 2018): 24/7 immediate payments addressed by email, phone number or ABN, settled individually in real time by the Fast Settlement Service (FSS) across Exchange Settlement Accounts (ESAs) at the Reserve Bank of Australia. · Checked 2026-07-14

    NPP payments settle individually and in real time via the FSS across ESAs at the RBA, unlike batch, deferred-net retail systems.

  2. Simplified educational illustration

    Payments Signal editorial teaching models — Payments Signal

    This site's own simplified teaching models. · Checked 2026-07-12

    What this simplifies: Single-cycle teaching model; participant-specific handling and exact timings vary.

    Used wherever diagrams, scenarios, figures, or example values are didactic constructions rather than sourced facts; every such use carries a simplifications disclosure. All people, companies, banks, and list entries in examples are fictional.