What problem does PaidIt actually solve?

It targets payouts — settlements, remediation, refunds — where the institution making the payment doesn't have complete or current recipient details, a gap historically bridged by mailing a cheque. PaidIt's matching engine runs identity and account checks to decide which payments can proceed automatically and which need manual review, according to CommBank's own announcement.

Why does the cheque phase-out make this urgent now?

The Australian government has set 2028 for ending government cheque use and 2030 for winding down the cheque system entirely, per a Treasury Ministers media release — though both dates are still subject to industry consultation. Cheque volumes were already down almost 90% over the prior decade, per the same release, forcing organisations to find another way to pay people with incomplete records.

CommBank's x15ventures Launches PaidIt to Automate

Commonwealth Bank's venture-scaling arm has built a recipient-verification and payout platform aimed at the settlements, refunds and remediation payments that used to default to a cheque. The timing is not incidental: government cheque use ends by 2028, the whole system by 2030.

CommBank's venture-scaling arm x15ventures launched PaidIt on 25 August 2026, an end-to-end platform that verifies recipients and delivers payouts via the New Payments Platform, PayID and ConnectID when contact details are incomplete. The launch precedes Australia's cheque phase-out — government use ends 2028, the full system by 2030 — and targets billions in unclaimed payments.

BankGenX Desk August 25, 2026 Updated August 25, 2026 · 4 min read

x15ventures, Commonwealth Bank's venture-scaling arm, launched PaidIt on 25 August 2026 to handle payouts where recipient details are incomplete or outdated.
The platform combines a recipient-matching engine, communications and payment delivery over the New Payments Platform, PayID and ConnectID, per CommBank.
Timing tracks Australia's cheque wind-down: government use ends by 2028 and the full system by 2030, per the Australian Treasury — both dates remain subject to industry consultation.
CommBank cites ASIC data putting unclaimed money at roughly A$2.7 billion as of May 2026, the pool PaidIt is pitched against.
PaidIt is already used inside CommBank and is rolling out to more business units and Corporate and Institutional Banking clients over coming months — a controlled internal-to-external release, not a market-wide launch yet.

CommBank's venture-scaling arm x15ventures launched PaidIt on 25 August 2026 — a platform built to handle the payouts that used to default to a cheque when an organisation couldn't confirm who to pay or where. It combines recipient verification, communications and payment delivery in one system, moving funds over the New Payments Platform, PayID and ConnectID, according to CommBank's own announcement of the launch.

What PaidIt does

PaidIt runs a recipient-matching engine that applies identity and account checks to decide which payouts can be released automatically and which need manual review, per CommBank. It is aimed at settlements, remediation payments and refunds — categories where an organisation often holds stale contact details for the person owed money. Median time from a recipient starting a claim to receiving funds is under two minutes, CommBank says.

Why the timing is not coincidental

The launch lands as Australia winds down cheques: government agencies are due to stop using them by 2028 and the whole cheque system is set to close by 2030, per a Treasury Ministers media release — both dates remain subject to industry consultation. Cheque use had already fallen almost 90% over the prior decade and accounts for just 0.2% of non-cash retail payments, the same release states.

The pool of money this is aimed at

CommBank's announcement cites ASIC data putting unclaimed money at roughly A$2.7 billion as of May 2026 — the reservoir of payments sitting with the regulator because the rightful recipient couldn't be found or paid. That figure is CommBank's characterization of ASIC's holdings, reported here as CommBank states it, not independently verified against ASIC's own published register.

Who gets it, and when

PaidIt is already running inside CommBank for cases with incomplete payment details, the bank says, and will extend to more CommBank business units and to Corporate and Institutional Banking clients over coming months. Managing Director Maja Enander said complexity in payouts "become so much harder when you don't have complete or current information about the person you're trying to pay," per CommBank's statement.

What this means for finance and operations teams

Any organisation still routing settlements or refunds through cheques for hard-to-reach payees has a fixed deadline, not an open-ended one — 2028 for government, 2030 for the system overall, both still provisional pending consultation. Regis Petit, CommBank's Executive General Manager for Institutional Transaction Banking, framed PaidIt as one option for navigating that transition; institutions should treat the cheque wind-down as a project with a clock, and start reconciling payee records now rather than at the deadline.

What problem does PaidIt actually solve?: It targets payouts — settlements, remediation, refunds — where the institution making the payment doesn't have complete or current recipient details, a gap historically bridged by mailing a cheque. PaidIt's matching engine runs identity and account checks to decide which payments can proceed automatically and which need manual review, according to CommBank's own announcement.
Why does the cheque phase-out make this urgent now?: The Australian government has set 2028 for ending government cheque use and 2030 for winding down the cheque system entirely, per a Treasury Ministers media release — though both dates are still subject to industry consultation. Cheque volumes were already down almost 90% over the prior decade, per the same release, forcing organisations to find another way to pay people with incomplete records.
Is PaidIt available to all banks and businesses now?: No. CommBank says PaidIt is currently deployed internally and will roll out to additional CommBank business units and to Corporate and Institutional Banking clients over coming months — a staged, CommBank-led release, not a general market product yet.

CommBank launches PaidIt to help organisations simplify payouts — Commonwealth Bank of Australia
CommBank rolls out payout platform in advance of cheque phase out — Finextra
Modernising payments infrastructure by phasing out cheques — Australian Government — The Treasury