The Reserve Bank of Australia is a step closer to its biggest restructure in three decades after Treasurer Jim Chalmers assured his Coalition counterpart, Angus Taylor, that he would not seek to replace members of the powerful interest rate-setting board.

Mr Taylor's suspicion that Mr Chalmers would use the restructure to "stack" the board with Labor-aligned members has been the main obstacle to passing the reforms, derailing the treasurer's concerted early efforts to keep the Coalition in the tent and avoid a damaging political split over the central bank.

After months of stalled progress, Mr Chalmers wrote to Mr Taylor on Thursday, in a letter seen by the ABC, proposing concessions to secure passage "as soon as possible".

The proposal would give all current board members the option to stay on the new Monetary Policy Board, which will continue to set interest rates while a separate Governance Board will handle internal affairs.

Governor Michele Bullock, who will chair both boards, has publicly stated she would prefer some current members on each board for continuity. The legislation would not prevent someone from staying on both boards, although it is unclear whether all the current members actually want to stay on the monetary board.

Mr Taylor's mistrust about the process was burnished by Mr Chalmers's appointments of Elana Rubin and Iain Ross to the current board.

Ms Rubin is an experienced company director whose directorships include Labor-aligned law firm Slater and Gordon, while Mr Ross is a retired judge and former head of the Fair Work Commission who was previously an ACTU official.

Appointments made under Coalition governments have also tended to be highly experienced people, more commonly with corporate sector backgrounds.

The independent review of the RBA, which formed the basis for this reform package, said the board should include more technical monetary policy expertise as part of a diverse set of skills.

Mr Chalmers has previously rubbished the suggestion he would use the reforms to install his own board, a move which would undermine the independence of the central bank and run counter to his efforts at bipartisanship.

But on Friday, he confirmed he had moved to address the Coalition's concerns in the interests of rescuing bipartisanship.

"We want these changes to endure after changes in government, and that's why we've taken a really bipartisan approach," he said.

"I've decided that the most important thing we can do here to land these reforms is to make sure the major parties come together in the spirit of bipartisanship so we can crack on with these changes...

"We've got our differences, but in this instance I believe [Mr Taylor] has got the right instincts and the right intentions... Whenever there's been a line ball call, whenever there's been an issue put to me by the Coalition, I've tried to accommodate it."

The concessions made this week fit a pattern across the government of seeking compromise to clear a large backlog of legislation.

The government also struck deals with the Coalition on CFMEU administration and NDIS reform, and established a Net Zero Economy Authority in concert with the Greens.

An attempt to strike a deal with the Coalition over aged care funding did not land, but still appears close.

Mr Taylor stopped short of saying he would now support the bill, saying the Coalition would "take our time and work through the detail".

"We've only received correspondence from the treasurer today. There have been no subsequent discussions," he said.

But the treasurer's letter also responded to the Coalition's other sticking point: the bill's removal of the treasurer's power to override the RBA's decisions.

That power, set out in Section 11 of the Reserve Bank Act, has never been used, and the independent review said it was superfluous and should go.

But a Senate committee into the bill heard arguments for its retention from a wide array of voices, including former governors Ian MacFarlane and Bernie Fraser, former treasurer Peter Costello and left-wing think tank The Australia Institute.

Mr Chalmers now proposes to retain the power, but with a narrower set of "extreme circumstances… where it is in the public interest to do so".

On Friday, he said this would apply only to "genuine emergency" situations and not "differences of opinion".

"You can imagine situations where there has been some sort of substantial structural or institutional failure... some total breakdown in the usual decision-making capacity of the Reserve Bank, but we're very deliberately not stipulating the exact circumstances, we're trying to limit the circumstances," he said.

While few expect the power to be used in future – although the Greens believe it should – the Coalition was persuaded by the view that it should be retained as a "backstop" and as a principle of democratic accountability.

The government hopes to pass the reforms by the end of the year in time for an early 2025 commencement. No deal has yet been done, but parliament will have an opportunity to revisit the bill when sitting resumes in mid-September.

"The ball is now in the shadow treasurer's court. We'll see if he can carry his colleagues on some of these important issues," Mr Chalmers said on Friday.

The RBA has already implemented several other recommendations of the independent review that do not require legislation, including reducing the frequency of its meetings and holding a press conference after every rate decision.