A temporary issue involving the secure payment service Osko disrupted some Westpac customers’ transactions early Monday morning. Osko, a near real-time payment platform built on the New Payments Platform (NPP), allows quick payments to other payment platforms like PayID or traditional BSB and account number-based transfers.
Osko is managed by the Australian Payments Plus (AP+), an organization formed following the merger of BPAY Group, eftpos, and NPP Australia in 2021.
According to an AP+ spokesperson, Westpac reported an issue with processing NPP payments, including Osko payments. However, the rest of the NPP continued to process payments unaffected. The NPP was intentionally designed to enable the operation of other participating organizations when one encounters problems.
Westpac resolved the issue and resumed processing NPP payments by 10:02 am. AP+ stated that they are monitoring the situation.
A Westpac spokesperson assured that the bank’s services are back to normal after a brief issue with some Osko payments earlier in the day, with no other services impacted.
It’s worth noting that earlier this month, both Bank of Queensland and ME Bank also experienced Osko-related issues. While these problems have been addressed, both banks reported delays in funds transfers into and out of customer accounts before resolving the issues.
