The National Payments Vision sets out the government’s ambitions for the UK payments sector. The government is keen to build on the UK’s position as a global leader in payments and is looking to strengthen the existing foundations to ensure a regulatory framework that is clear, predicable and proportionate, with a resilient infrastructure while also building for tomorrow. Its priorities include:
- seamless account-to-account payment for consumers with a vital role for Open Banking. The aim is to transition to the FCA as future regulator to relieve current regulatory “congestion”;
- a commitment to explore the potential retail CBDC, noting that no decision as to whether to go ahead or not has yet been taken;
- the FCA leading work to manage existing overlaps between it and the PSR, while the PSR will arrange an independent post-implementation review of the APP reimbursement rules after 12 months;
- the establishment of a Payment Vision Delivery Committee to drive the next steps.
The government has written to the FCA and the BoE’s Prudential Regulation Committee, setting out that they should have regard to the government’s policy towards the financial services sector, and its key drive to promote growth and international competitiveness. It has also written separately to the FCA and PSR providing its recommendations for how to deal with the Vision’s priorities. Key among these are the need to reduce regulatory congestion, supporting Open Banking, ensuring high standards of consumer protection and driving an agile and flexible approach to delivering the UK’s retail payments infrastructure needs.