Commonwealth Bank (CommBank) has launched a new platform designed to help organisations manage refunds, settlements, and remediation payments as Australia prepares to phase out cheques in 2028.

Called PaidIt, the platform aims to simplify the process of paying people when organisations hold incomplete or outdated recipient details. It combines recipient verification, communications, and payment delivery in a single system.

The bank said organisations often spend significant time and resources trying to locate and verify recipients before releasing funds, particularly when they only have a last known postal address.

PaidIt uses a recipient matching engine that applies identity and account checks to determine which payments can proceed automatically and which require further review. The platform also uses Australia's New Payments Platform (NPP), PayID, and ConnectID to verify recipients and process payments.

CommBank said the median time from a recipient starting a claim to receiving funds through PaidIt is less than two minutes.

The bank has already started using the platform in cases where payment details are missing or out of date.

PaidIt was developed the service through x15ventures, CommBank's venture scaling arm, and the company plans to roll it out to additional business units before making it available to corporate and institutional banking customers in the coming months.

The bank said that organisations invest "considerable effort" in trying to complete payments with missing information. In some instances, it can be months, or even years before people receive monty they are owed and some funds remain unclaimed.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission currently holds around 2.7 billion Australian dollars (£1.4 billion) in unclaimed money, with additional funds held by state and territory governments.

Regis Petit, executive general manager for institutional transaction banking at Commonwealth Bank, said: "As Australia moves towards a cheque-free future, organisations have an opportunity to rethink how they manage complex payouts – particularly in situations where cheques have traditionally provided a practical fallback.

"PaidIt is one way we're helping clients navigate that transition and shows how we can bring Commonwealth Bank's payments expertise together with x15ventures' venture-building capability to tackle complex institutional challenges."

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