ANZ appears to have cleared its biggest hurdle for bringing real time payments to its customer base after completing a rollout of PayID services to mobile banking users. The bank's head of payments and merchants John Collins confirmed this week that ANZ's mobile app had been updated to connect most transaction accounts to services offer via the New Payments Platform. "We have now completed the rollout of Pay ID services for our customers to use in our smartphone apps," Collins told Banking Day. "This means customers can transfer money to other accounts almost instantly while they are on the go using Pay ID in the ANZ app." ANZ is the second of the major banks to offer full PayID services on both internet and mobile platforms behind the National Australia Bank. "Last year we focussed on rolling out this functionality to our internet banking services and with it now available in our smartphone app, we have a really strong offering on the New Payments Platform," Collins said. While ANZ has the smallest retail customer base of the four majors, it has recently accounted for the largest share of NPP-related transactions because it was the first to provide real-time services to businesses. However, the rate of growth in the value of transactions processed through the NPP has slowed in recent months because CBA and Westpac are struggling to connect business customers to the NPP. The economic benefits of the NPP have been delayed because the two Sydney-based banking giants also have not fully rolled out the service to retail customers. CBA does not yet offer PayID services to users of its internet banking service, while none of Westpac's regional subsidiaries - St George, BankSA and Bank of Melbourne - offer any NPP-related services. While Westpac offers PayID services to retail users of its flagship mobile and internet platforms, much of the NPP's most important features, such as single credit transfers, are not yet available. The snail-like rollout of NPP services by the major banks and limited utility of the CBA and Westpac offerings have attracted scathing criticism from the Reserve Bank, consumers and payments experts. Two foreign-owned banks - Citi and HSBC - are also drawing heat from customers on social media for being unable to link their accounts to any real-time services offered through the NPP. Neither Citi nor HSBC have given specific advice to customers on when PayID services will be launched. Most banks and credit unions that have launched NPP-related services in the last 17 months are under pressure to explain why they do not enable customers to future-date transactions or set up schedules for recurring payments. Influential banking consultant, Gerd Schenkel of PIP Digital yesterday panned most Australian banks in a social media post for not providing such functionality. Schenkel is now questioning why the large banks bothered to invest hundreds of millions to set up the NPP when basic services like