The UK’s Payment System Regulator (PSR) has published its Annual Report and Accounts for the period 2019/20 – the fifth since its inception.
Over the last year, the PSR report that they have advanced their work preventing Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams protecting access to cash and promoting innovation and competition in the interests of everyone who uses payment systems.
By maintaining a long-term focus while remaining agile enough to adapt to an ever-evolving payments sector, the PSR report that that they have driven and supported important steps forward in the development of the UK payments markets.
These include:
- Ensuring the effective implementation of Confirmation of Payee (CoP), an invaluable service designed prevent misdirected payments, including authorised push payment fraud.
- Supporting the UK’s cash infrastructure through the PSR’s work with operator LINK and other regulators and authorities, most notably the newly launched Joint Authorities Cash Strategy (JACS) group. This brings together the PSR, FCA, Bank of England and the Treasury to consider and coordinate work to address cash system issues and ensure that everyone can access cash when they need it.
- Monitoring Pay.UK’s development of the New Payments Architecture (NPA) to ensure the it supports competition and innovation while producing good outcomes for payment system users.
The PSR’s annual report also notes other significant work from the last year including the:
- Continuation of a market review of the supply of card acquiring services, to find out if this essential area of card payments is working well for merchants and, ultimately, consumers.
- Conclusion of the PSR’s first in-depth look at data in payments, an area of increasing importance as new ways of using data become more and more widespread.
- Publication of the PSR’s revised and updated ‘day one’ directions which came into effect in April and May. The Directions are relevant to the Regulators statutory objectives under FSBRA, of promoting competition, innovation and the interests of service-users.
As well as a summary of the work we completed in 2019/20, as set out above, the Annual Report also includes:
- Directors’ report
- Corporate governance statement
- Directors’ remuneration report
- Financial statements
Download: the PSR’s 2019/20 Annual Report.
Payment Systems Regulator’s 2020/2021 Annual Plan
Earlier this year the PSR published its plan for 20/21: