The high-volume cash and noncash payments that involve small transfers of value such as cash, EFTPOS and credit card transactions

That part of the payments system that compiles the exchange summary faxes from each ESA account holder and calculates a single net obligation for each institution

An account financial institutions hold with the central bank to transfer funds to settle transactions in the payments system

Cheques drawn on a bank by a customer and used to facilitate payment

A feeder system to RITS from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, which settles the Australiandollar side of foreign exchange transactions

The low-volume, high-value transactions made with instruments such as bank cheques and warrants, and cleared in real time transaction by transaction

The standard in which currency is valued in relation to the value of an ounce of gold

The RBA buys back t-notes held by institutions at a penalty rate to provide them with same-day funds.

Institutions that are approved by APRA to conduct banking business (taking deposits and issuing loans) within the financial system

A risk management-based approach from the 1980s under which banks paid 3 per cent on deposits, charged 6 per cent on loans and closed the branch at 3 pm

The statutory responsibilities of the RBA

Part of RITS that settles high-value payments in real time

A global settlements initiative linked to RITS' RTGS system, designed to mitigate risk in international currency settlements

Funds that do not have to be cleared through the payments system and so can be used to increase ESA balances during the day

A statement by institutions participating in the payment system that details obligations accrued during the course of the day against other institutions

Australia's central bank, responsible for monetary policy, financial system stability and the payments system

RBA's system of settlement of cleared transactions, which results in transfers between exchange settlement accounts of financial institutions in Australia

A feeder system to RITS that settles high-value transactions for the ASX for Australian equities trades

The phenomenon in which the financial difficulties of one organisation spread to others because of the complex interrelationships between institutions and the nature of the exchange settlement systems

Financial instruments used in direct payments between financial institutions

The batch settlement made to each institution's exchange settlement account at 9 am based on the previous day's single net obligation for each institution

A list of transactions currently in the process of being settled in RTGS

Interest-bearing securities issued and bought back by the Bank of England from the eighteenth century to influence the supply of credit in the market

A feeder system to the RBA's payments system for CGS, semigovernment and private sector debt securities

Notes and coins issued by the government, which represent a store of value and the government promises to honour, and must be accepted in settlement of a transaction

A lender available to banks in difficulty to prevent them from failing when they are in financial difficulty, usually because of a lack of liquidity