Queued at the RBA: a RITS payment waiting on the ESA
Trigger: Bank Alfa's Exchange Settlement Account (ESA) at the Reserve Bank of Australia lacks the balance to cover a high-value RITS payment.
What operations sees first: A submitted RTGS payment does not settle at once; it sits in the RITS queue until the ESA can cover it.
WHERE IS THE MONEY?
No money moved while queued — Bank Alfa's ESA was untouched until cover arrived.
DID SETTLEMENT HAPPEN?
Settlement was deferred until liquidity was available, then completed gross and final.
WHO ACTS NEXT?
Bank Alfa (sending bank) Bank Alfa manages its ESA balance so high-value payments do not sit queued.
PLAY THE EXCEPTION
Trigger: Bank Alfa's Exchange Settlement Account does not hold AUD 1,500,000.00 at the moment RITS checks it.
Bank Alfa submits the payment to RITS
Bank Alfa (paying bank) → RITS (Reserve Bank of Australia)
The paying bank sends its high-value obligation to RITS, which processes it the instant it arrives rather than batching it for a later netting cycle. Nothing has settled yet — this is an instruction.
Step 1 of 5: Bank Alfa submits the payment to RITS
- 02ProcessingRITS checks Bank Alfa's ESA balanceRITS (Reserve Bank of Australia)
- 03 · EXCEPTION PATHProcessingRITS queues the paymentRITS (Reserve Bank of Australia)
- 04 · EXCEPTION PATHProcessingBank Alfa's ESA is fundedBank Alfa (paying bank)
- 05 · EXCEPTION PATHSettlementThe queued payment settlesBank Alfa (paying bank) → Nordbank (receiving bank)
- OUTCOME
- Funds
- Not yet moved — Nordbank is paid only once Bank Alfa's ESA holds enough to settle the payment in full.
- Settlement
- Settlement waited on liquidity — the payment stayed queued, not rejected, until the ESA was covered.
- Who acts next
- Bank Alfa (paying bank) — Bank Alfa manages its intraday liquidity so high-value payments do not sit in the RITS queue late in the day.
Full step-by-step text (works without JavaScript)
- 02ProcessingRITS checks Bank Alfa's ESA balanceRITS (Reserve Bank of Australia)
RITS looks at whether Bank Alfa's Exchange Settlement Account (ESA) at the Reserve Bank holds enough funds to settle in full, one payment at a time, before any money moves.
- 03 · EXCEPTION PATHProcessingRITS queues the paymentRITS (Reserve Bank of Australia)
An RTGS system will not create money it does not have, but it need not reject the payment. RITS holds it in a queue rather than settling it, waiting for liquidity to arrive.
- 04 · EXCEPTION PATHProcessingBank Alfa's ESA is fundedBank Alfa (paying bank)
Incoming payments credit Bank Alfa's Exchange Settlement Account, or the bank moves liquidity in, so the ESA can now cover the queued outgoing payment.
- 05 · EXCEPTION PATHSettlementThe queued payment settlesBank Alfa (paying bank) → Nordbank (receiving bank)
With cover now on the ESA, the Reserve Bank of Australia settles the payment across the two Exchange Settlement Accounts, gross and finally.
- DR Bank Alfa's Exchange Settlement Account at the RBA — AUD 1,500,000.00
- CR Nordbank's Exchange Settlement Account at the RBA — AUD 1,500,000.00
- OUTCOME
- Funds
- Not yet moved — Nordbank is paid only once Bank Alfa's ESA holds enough to settle the payment in full.
- Settlement
- Settlement waited on liquidity — the payment stayed queued, not rejected, until the ESA was covered.
- Who acts next
- Bank Alfa (paying bank) — Bank Alfa manages its intraday liquidity so high-value payments do not sit in the RITS queue late in the day.
THE TIMELINE
- 01Bank Alfa (sending bank)Submits an AUD 1,500,000.00 payment to RITS for real-time gross settlement.
- 02RITS (Reserve Bank of Australia)Checks Bank Alfa's ESA balance, finds it insufficient, and queues the payment rather than rejecting it.
RITS settles only funded payments but holds the instruction instead of failing it.
- 03Bank AlfaReceives incoming RITS credits or arranges funds so its ESA can cover the queued payment.
- 04Reserve Bank of AustraliaReleases the queued payment and settles it gross across the ESAs in central bank money, final and irrevocable.
Resolution: The payment is deferred, not lost. Once the ESA can cover it, the RBA settles it with finality across the Exchange Settlement Accounts.
Sources for this scenario2
- Official requirement
RITS, the New Payments Platform and the Fast Settlement Service ↗ — Reserve Bank of Australia · RITS queue / ESAs
NPP payments settle individually and in real time via the FSS across ESAs at the RBA, unlike batch, deferred-net retail systems.
- Simplified educational illustration
Payments Signal editorial teaching models — Payments Signal
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.