A trial of central bank digital currency in Sweden is to be extended for another year to 2021, in a bid to better understand the benefits and implications of a wider roll-out. Sweden’s Riksbank central bank has been working on plans for a digital krona in partnership with Accenture, which the bank said was designed to address the problem of the “marginalisation […]
I’m pleased to become a judge for the 2021 Emerging Payments Awards. Submissions open next Monday – check out http://emergingpaymentsawards.org for more.
In this February round up of retail payments, we see the impact of Lockdown 3.0 on the volume and value of payments processed in the UK. Note: All data is publicly sourced and is the latest available: Pay.UK January 2021, Link February 2021 and UK Finance November 2020. Source: Pay.UK Limited Bacs Direct Debit and Direct Credit In the 12 […]
There is a real ‘lockdown’ feel to the January Current Account Switching statistics: Number of switches fourth lowest over the last 12 month period – very close to the May, June and July ‘lockdown lows’ of 2020. 15% of switches were for Small Business and Charity accounts – a much higher percentage than normal.
Mastercard is rolling out prepaid cards that can be loaded with the world’s first central bank digital currency, the Bahamian Sand Dollar. With 700 small islands and more than 5000 square miles of water cash money movement in the Bahamas becomes costly. This makes a central bank digital currency (CBDC) a preferred digital payment in the region. Island Pay is […]
The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) has developed a new online tool to help firms gain additional insight into the maturity of their counter-fraud defences and help identify potential areas of improvement. The tool is available exclusively to regulated and approved participants enrolled in the OBIE Directory and has been designed for both well-established firms, as well as new entrants […]
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 systems Explore consumer expectations and perceptions around payments Explore consumers’ needs in relation to payments Understand any challenges consumers face around payments Identify […]
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 for a variety of purposes, […]
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, are a significant and growing […]
The PSR are consulting on ways to reduce risks to the successful renewal of the UK’s interbank payment systems and proposals to mitigate risks to competition and innovation. Each year, millions of us collectively make billions of interbank payments worth trillions of pounds. Whether receiving wages or paying bills (via Bacs/Direct Debit), or using a smart phone to send money to a friend (via Faster Payments), interbank payments are essential to […]
The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) has published a consultation on Confirmation of Payee (CoP) and the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code and its implications for open banking payment journeys. The OBIE welcomes stakeholder views on the CoP / CRM Consultation paper via its online Consultation Survey. OBIE have published three papers: CoP/ CRM Consultation paper CoP and CRM Proposition paper […]
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 14 February 2021. Key observations for the week ending 14 February: Last week ATM transactions decreased by 0.9 million (when compared to the previous week). Last week’s ATM transactions were 19.2 million less than the equivalent week in 2020. With the impact from Lockdown 3.0 continuing, weekly ATM use has reduced by 45% (compared […]
It may have taken 300 years after the first campaign for the decimalisation of our currency but 50 years ago yesterday (15 February 1971) it happened – the UK celebrated a currency change called D-Day (or Decimalisation Day). Decimalisation Day occurred in the middle of a seven week postal strike, when the average house cost £4,265 and a pint of […]
With so many payment options in the market, what makes Request to Pay different and why should banks and PSPs be interested in it? The webinar recording from last weeks Request to Pay event organised by Consult Hyperion has just been posted – this webinar delves into this question and was led by CHYP’s Principal Consultant, Tim Richards. Tim was joined by James […]
untied launches Making Tax Digital early adopter programme, the first end to end service recognised by HMRC. Source: untied untied, the UK’s personal tax app, today announced that one of its users has successfully made the UK’s first Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax submission powered by Open Banking data. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (also known as […]
Roses are yoursViolets are mineIn Blighty we PINThe Yanks still sign On this anniversary weekend the folks at Consult Hyperion are getting all romantic. On this anniversary weekend Consult Hyperion recall that their romance with smart cards started many years ago. Dave Birch recalls that it will be fifteen years on Sunday that chip and PIN went live in the UK […]