A round-up of payment related developments at Pay.UK, the Payment Systems Regulator, the Bank of England, HM Treasury, the FCA and the Open Banking Implementation Entity. Period covered: 20 March to 6 April 2022. Pay.UK Current Account Switch Service annual report: continued progress in 2021 The Current Account Switch Service achieved all its regulatory KPIs in... Continue Reading →

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published its Annual Plan for 2022/23.   In publishing the annual plan the PSR have stated that, on the whole, the regulated payment systems work well. However, the PSR believe that the payments landscape is evolving and with this, there are issues that need to be addressed.  The areas that the PSR... Continue Reading →

Financial Services Regulatory Initiatives Forum In November 2021 the Financial Services Regulatory Initiatives Forum published an updated version of the Regulatory Initiatives Grid which is intended to help regulators identify and manage peaks in demand and give firms a clearer idea of the major upcoming initiatives across the main financial services authorities. In this blog we provide... Continue Reading →

In January 2022 the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published their initial remedies consultation for its card-acquiring market review. In this blog we provide a quick summary of the latest outcomes of the market review together with relevant links to the PSR’s website. What are card acquiring services and why do they matter? Every time somebody makes a... Continue Reading →

In October 2021 the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published the outcome of a regulatory review of protections available to consumers who make retail payments from one payment account directly to another. In this blog we provide a quick summary of the outcomes of the review together with relevant links to the PSR’s website. Consumer Protection - Call for... Continue Reading →

In January (2022) the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published their latest strategy which sets out their priorities and what they aim to achieve over the next five years.  In this edition of Payments:Unpacked Extra! we provide a quick summary of the strategy together with relevant links to the PSR’s website. Strategic priorities The PSRs strategy recognises areas where payments... Continue Reading →

Northey Point’s response to the Payment Systems Regulators consultation on Authorised Push Payment (APP) Scams (CP21/10). Introduction This paper sets out Northey Point’s response to the PSR’s Authorised Push Payment (APP) Scams consultation (CP21/10). Mike Chambers is a recognised authority on retail payments and, as Chief Executive Officer, led Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (Bacs), the... Continue Reading →

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published (January 2022) their latest access and governance report showing trends and developments in interbank payment systems for the period 2019 and 2020.  The report is aimed at anyone with an interest in access trends for interbank systems, and in their governance arrangements. This includes payment system operators, PSPs, existing and... Continue Reading →

Today (21 October 2021), the Payment Systems Regulator has published their findings from the call for views issued in May 2021 about Confirmation of Payee (CoP). Introduction APP scams and accidentally misdirected payments can cause significant harm to consumers. Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is a service that aims to prevent certain types of scams and misdirected payments... Continue Reading →

The HMT payments landscape review has just been published and outlines the government’s vision is for a payments sector at the forefront of technology and innovation. Underpinning this vision are the government’s high-level aims for payments: UK payments networks that operate for the benefit of end users, including consumers. a UK payments industry that promotes and develops... Continue Reading →

The PSR has been consulting on a new proposed five year strategy - views were required to be submitted by the 10 September 2021 and the PSR propose to use the feedback received to finalise their strategic approach and ensure that they focus on the right outcomes and, ultimately, publish a strategy that is balanced... Continue Reading →

The Payments:Unpacked newsletter from Mike Chambers at Northey Point explores a wide range of the UK’s payment news including: Open Banking, Request to Pay, Direct Debit, Confirmation of Payee, Bacs, CHAPS, Faster Payments, LINK, cash, cards and cheques and unpacks the eco-system that supports the operation of these systemically important payment systems. The premium newsletter option offers: Quarterly performance analysis of... Continue Reading →

As the Payment System Regulator considers the responses to the call for views on Authorised Push Payment Scams Teresa Connors from Payment Matters considers whether the proposed measures to fight fraud might have unintended consequences. We are pleased to feature this perspective guest blog from Teresa Connors from Payment Matters. Only 45% of reported Authorised... Continue Reading →

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) have published their Annual Plan and Budget for 2021/22.  The PSR state that their focus for the coming twelve months will be on work that will improve outcomes by encouraging competition and innovation where it is needed most and putting the interests of everyone who uses payment systems first.  By doing this, the... Continue Reading →

The PSR have today, 24 March 2021, published their aims, activities and expected costs for the year 2021/22. Hear Chris Hemsley, Managing Director at the Payment System Regulator introducing the regulators plan for the next 12 months: https://youtu.be/q4vuo962lC4 The PSR position the plan with the following statement: We regulate 40 billion payments worth more than... Continue Reading →

The Kalifa Review of UK FinTech - the Bangers ‘n’ Mash of reviews Fintech is one of the UK’s great success stories and will help us seize new opportunities around the world.Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer The big news of the last week is the Kalifa Review or as HMT introduce it: UK’s global fintech... Continue Reading →

Test podcast of blog: PSR Consultation on delivery and regulation of the New Payments Architecture https://anchor.fm/michael-chambers02/episodes/PSR-Consultation-on-delivery-and-regulation-of-the-New-Payments-Architecture-equ660

The PSR commissioned BritainThinks, an independent research company, to conduct a two- stage programme of qualitative and quantitative research with consumers. Overall and in the context of Covid-19, the research looked to: Understand consumer awareness of payment systemsExplore consumer expectations and perceptions around paymentsExplore consumers’ needs in relation to paymentsUnderstand any challenges consumers face around... Continue Reading →

More and more of us are using digital payments to transfer funds directly from one bank account to another using interbank payment systems and particularly the Faster Payments Service (Faster Payments.) But if Faster Payments continues to grow, we need to understand whether the protections currently in place are sufficient. Faster Payments is increasingly used... Continue Reading →

APP scams can cause significant harm to consumers. This work continues to be a key priority for the PSR, both in terms of prevention and getting the right outcomes for victims. APP scams, when fraudsters trick people into transferring money to them by posing as a legitimate payee or constructing fraudulent reasons for a payment,... Continue Reading →

Interest-free buy-now-pay-later credit agreements will be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in order to protect consumers under plans announced by the government Interest-free buy-now-pay-later agreements will be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority Government acts swiftly to protect consumers after review finds potential for harm Lenders will be required to carry out affordability... Continue Reading →

The PSR are conducting a second annual review of Specific Direction 8 (SD8), which is designed to make sure LINK does all it can to fulfil its public commitments to maintain the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs. The PSR would like to hear your views on how well SD8 is working in practice. The PSR... Continue Reading →

In 2020 Genevieve Marjoribanks, Head of Policy at the PSR published two pieces that focused on improving outcomes for victims of APP scams, and referred to a new piece of work that would look at what protections are available in interbank payments.  The PSR have published a thought piece by Genevieve Marjoribanks, Head of Policy at the PSR........... Continue Reading →

We’ve all been given the rule book, we have all been told that everyone is due on the field but none of us have played this before With just days to go before the 31 December 2020 deadline for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) implementation in Europe, it’s worth taking a look at at the industry’s position... Continue Reading →

This article was written for Northey Point by Jonathan Gilmour (Partner at Travers Smith) along with Natalie Lewis (Senior Counsel) and Vanessa Kalijnikoff Battaglia (Senior Counsel) and originally featured in our Payments, Payments, Payments newsletter - read, subscribe and share. There is no doubt that innovation and technological development in the payments space is a hot topic. It is a topic... Continue Reading →

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has today announced the appointment of Dr Ruth Wandhöfer as Chair of the PSR Panel from 1 December 2020. Ruth succeeds Stephen Locke, Independent Adviser.  The Panel performs an important role in our accountability framework ensuring that the views and needs of businesses which provide payments and the people and... Continue Reading →

This week's "Payments, Payments, Payments" newsletter's Longer Read explored the purpose, role and activities of the payments regulator - The Payment Systems Regulator The call for a regulator to oversee the payment systems industry began with a series of reviews, starting with the Cruikshank Report in 2000. This was followed by a number of subsequent... Continue Reading →

The Emerging Payments Association (EPA) has published a paper containing the community’s responses to HM Treasury’s Payments Landscape Review: Call for Evidence. The paper details recommendations on how to ensure the UK’s payments industry becomes progressive, world-leading and secure, and effective at serving the needs of everyone who pays and gets paid. The paper describes some of... Continue Reading →

What role does the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) play to ensure that competition is effective at all levels of the payments chain? The PSR have commenced a strategic review and are currently in a pre-consultation phase. More: PSR Future Strategy. PSR's Strategic Themes The three themes of the PSR's strategic review are: Theme 1 -... Continue Reading →

What role does the PSR play to ensure that competition is effective at all levels of the payments chain? Hear Chris Hemsley (PSR Managing Director) introduce the PSR’s second strategic review theme of competition: https://youtu.be/1TakwNbBEQI Theme 1 of the PSR Future Strategy was launched in July and now themes two and three have also been... Continue Reading →

This weeks longer read from our newsletter takes us back 20 years to the Cruickshank Report; “Competition in UK Banking: A Report to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.” To put todays banking landscape into perspective it is worth reading the Executive Summary. The executive summary, published in 2000, opens with: Banks operate on a huge scale... Continue Reading →

The Financial Services Regulatory Initiatives Forum has issued the second edition of the Regulatory Initiatives Grid.  Upcoming work in the latest iteration includes the LIBOR transition and ongoing work to prepare the financial services sector for the end of the EU exit transition period. Also included are Government reviews, including the payments landscape review and the... Continue Reading →

The UK's Payment Systems Regulator has published an interim report on the supply of card acquiring services. It shows that merchants could make savings by shopping around and either switching or negotiating with their current provider – but many small and medium ones don’t. While many small and medium merchants may not be getting a... Continue Reading →

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... Continue Reading →

What is an APP scam? An Authorised Push Payment (APP) scam is when a person or business is tricked into transferring money to a fraudster, thinking that they are sending money to a legitimate person or company. Source: Payments System Regulator Find out more: the PSR’s work to protect people from APP scams. Read Genevieve Marjoribanks’ piece... Continue Reading →

Today, 6 August 2020, the Payments System Regulator (PSR) published a thought piece: Getting the right outcomes for the victims of Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams. An authorised push payment (APP) scam happens when someone is tricked into sending money to a fraudster. These crimes can have a devastating effect on those who fall victim.... Continue Reading →

The Emerging Payments Association (EPA), which celebrates collaboration and innovation across the emerging payments industry, has launched a review paper, ‘Avoiding a payments lockdown’, to present to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Treasury following the shutdown of Wirecard Card Solutions Limited. The paper seeks to identify the current vulnerabilities of the business models that underpin... Continue Reading →

The Payment Systems Regulator has announced the development of its future strategy. The PSR wants to hear from you now, before it formally consults, around the end of this year, to define clear outcomes for the payments sector – to set out priorities for the regulator, and what stakeholders can expect from the regulator in... Continue Reading →

In light of rapid technology developments, HM Treasury is leading a Payments Landscape Review. HMT's Call for Evidence is the first stage in the review. It sets out the government’s aims for payments networks in the UK, makes a high-level assessment of how well the present system is delivering against the government’s aims and asks... Continue Reading →

The FCA has published draft guidance for firms setting out its expectations for banks, building societies and credit unions when they are considering closing branches or ATMs, or converting a free to use ATM to pay to use. The FCA wants to ensure that firms treat their customers fairly when closing a branch or ATM, including considering... Continue Reading →

Mums unable to feed their children. Young people unable to pay rent. People unable to receive their benefits. Payments due for essential items like insurance and bills, all frozen From a post about “#FruityFrittataFreelancerFriday” to this Tweet in just over two hours, Friday was a tough day for ANNA Money and its customers: ANNA Money... Continue Reading →

While the industry is grappling with the challenges arising from Covid19, the Emerging Payments Association has established a new project - Project Recovery, and from the first project meeting they have created a ‘Project Recovery Round Table Series’. Project Recovery Project Recovery provides insights, resources and thought leadership to the EPA's 130 plus members on the... Continue Reading →

This morning, Genevieve Marjoribanks, Head of Policy at the Payment Systems Regulator delivered a speech titled ‘next steps for digital payments in the UK - innovation, inclusion, security and regulation’ at the Westminster Business eForum. A full transcript of the speech can be found at: https://www.psr.org.uk/psr-publications/speeches/Genevieve-Marjoribanks-Westminster-Business-eForum-Speech-May-2020 If you missed today’s Westminster Business Forum event Genevieve’s speech... Continue Reading →

In its 2020/21 Annual Plan the Payments Systems Regulator (PSR) stated that it would work alongside the FCA and Bank of England to actively feed into a Future Regulatory Framework review by providing resources, feedback and expertise. Along with the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the FCA and the Bank of England, the PSR are supporting... Continue Reading →

This morning the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published their annual plan and budget for 2020/21. Given that the plan was finalised before the impact of COVID19 had affected our daily lives, Chris Hemsley's (PSR, Managing Director) 'launch' video explains that the PSR will need to adjust the plan to reflect the significance of the pandemic,... Continue Reading →

Education: the secret ‘sauce’ for the successful implementation of payments regulation It’s 1997 and Tony Blair has just been elected prime minister, Katrina and the Waves have won the Eurovision song contest and Cool Britannia is starting to swing. The new prime minster quickly set out his priorities for office and ‘education, education, education’ is... Continue Reading →

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has today (5 March 2020) published revised versions of its General Directions, and Specific Direction 1. These are the ‘day one’ Directions the regulator published when it became operational in 2015. They cover communication with the PSR as well as payment systems’ access and governance arrangements. Following consultation, the PSR... Continue Reading →

Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) arrived on the 14 September 2019 as part of the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and you may have seen it starting to impact your contactless payments. Unfortunately, not everyone was ready to comply with the requirements of the Article 11 exemption (Contactless Payments at Point of Sale) in the Regulatory... Continue Reading →