One year on: what the National Payments Vision means for corporate treasurers

The National Payments Vision represents a structural shift in how businesses will engage with customers, suppliers, and financial partners over the coming decade

Faster settlement, richer data, new payment instruments, and stronger fraud controls will increasingly shape working capital efficiency, liquidity management, customer experience, and operational risk. Treasurers who engage early will be better placed to influence outcomes, adapt operating models, and capture value as new capabilities come to market. 
 
Crucially, the National Payments Vision (NPV) is being delivered through new industry forums and governance structures designed to ensure relevance, coordination, and pace. For the treasurer community, staying close to these developments – through thought leadership from banks, payment providers, and bodies such as the ACT – will be essential to remain informed, compliant, and competitive.

 This first year has demonstrated that delivery depends on collaboration across the ecosystem  

Momentum, partnership and opportunity

What began as a broad policy ambition has, in just 12 months, become the blueprint for modernising the UK’s payment systems. The National Payments Vision now acts as the UK’s ‘North Star’, guiding coordinated investment and innovation while ensuring payments remain resilient, inclusive, and globally competitive. 

This first year has demonstrated that delivery depends on collaboration across the ecosystem. Banks, infrastructure providers, and regulators are translating ambition into trusted, scalable services – helping businesses adopt new technologies safely and responsibly, without compromising resilience or control.

Building foundations of a modern payments system

Since launch, the NPV has shifted decisively from strategy to delivery through alignment across HM Treasury, the Bank of England, the FCA, the PSR and wider industry. The Payments Forward Plan reinforces this with a clear, coordinated regulatory roadmap for the next three years across four areas of direct relevance to treasurers: 
 

1. Stronger governance and direction 
   The new Payments Vision Delivery Committee is coordinating modernisation across retail and wholesale payments, creating a more predictable and consolidated regulatory pipeline. For treasurers, this improves planning certainty when investing in systems, integrations, and new payment capabilities. 
    
2. Clarity on the future of Open Banking 
   The FCA will gain formal powers to oversee Open Banking, with the Data (Use and Access) Act providing a long term regulatory framework. This underpins future account to account payments, cash visibility, and data enabled treasury services. 
    
3. Modernising payments regulation 
   HM Treasury will consult in Q2 2026 on updating payments laws, including frameworks for stablecoin payments, Strong Customer Authentication, and agentic payments; shaping how corporates authorise payments, manage risk and interact with automation and AI.
    
4. Enhanced cross border alignment 
   The UK continues to influence international standards, complementing the G20’s 2027 cross border payments roadmap. This is critical for treasurers managing multi currency liquidity, FX exposure, and global settlement risk.

Why this matters for treasury 

Across retail banking, business payments, and treasury operations, the NPV reinforces a simple principle: outcomes matter more than infrastructure. For corporates, a modern payments system should deliver: 

• Better experiences through faster confirmations, real time status updates and richer remittance data 
• Greater safety via shared intelligence, stronger authentication and improved fraud prevention 
• More choice and flexibility, as new payment types and rails are introduced responsibly 

These outcomes translate directly into improved cash forecasting, reduced operational friction and stronger control environments. 

Fighting fraud: a national priority 

Fraud remains the UK’s most prevalent crime, and a growing concern for finance teams. The NPV recognises that tackling it requires a joined up approach across sectors. The Payments Forward Plan aligns with wider initiatives, including the Home Office Fraud Strategy and the newly announced Online Crime Centre. Together, they aim to disrupt criminal activity and strengthen protections for consumers and businesses through better data sharing and coordinated action. For treasurers, progress will hinge on: 

• Data sharing across banks, platforms and telecoms 
• Intelligence driven risk scoring and monitoring 
• Stronger digital identity, supported by the government’s planned free national digital ID scheme. 

All of which will increasingly influence authorisation models, controls frameworks and fraud liability. 

Next generation infrastructure 

The NPV and Payments Forward Plan both champion responsible innovation, accelerating work on:

• Tokenised payments and programmable money, including systemic stablecoin regulation (Bank of England and FCA consultations through 2026) 
• Next generation retail infrastructure, with consultations on the Retail Payments Infrastructure Board’s design work in 2026 
• Wholesale settlement innovation, including near 24/7 RTGS and the launch of the RTGS Synchronisation Lab in 2026 
• Agentic AI, expected to reshape payment authentication, exception handling and risk models 
• Tokenised deposits and emerging digital asset models, with potential impacts on intraday liquidity and settlement efficiency 

All are being progressed with a strong emphasis on risk management, resilience and regulatory clarity – critical considerations for treasury teams. 

Why treasurers should engage 

Delivering the National Payments Vision will require shared standards, sustained investment and clear accountability – particularly for fraud prevention and customer protection. The Payments Forward Plan reinforces this with a coordinated approach to resilience, innovation and financial inclusion. 

This agenda will shape how businesses pay, get paid, manage liquidity and protect themselves from risk. The next phase demands early engagement, close collaboration with banks and providers, and continued learning through industry forums and thought leadership -including from the ACT and the wider treasurer community – to ensure corporate needs are reflected and opportunities fully realised.

About the authors

Simon Eacott is head of payments and Ritu Sehgal is head of transaction services and trade at NatWest