Protection of business and individual users’ interests will be “at the heart of the £75 trillion UK payment systems industry”, the industry’s new watchdog has announced.
The Payment Systems Regulator has published a work programme setting out its priorities for the coming year. It aims to make payment systems work well for the people and organisations that use them, and to deliver greater choice, innovation and competition.
The PSR’s policy establishes three pillars of work. The first pillar involves setting up a Payments Strategy Forum “to develop a long-term vision for how payment systems should develop and identify priority areas for the industry to work together where appropriate to deliver this vision”. The other pillars focus on increasing transparency around how decisions are made, and who is making them, and improving the way that people and businesses gain access to a payment system.
Complementing work carried out by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Competition and Markets Authority, the PSR is set to carry out a market review into the ownership and competitiveness of infrastructure provision, focusing on the infrastructure provided by Vocalink to Bacs, the Faster Payments Service, and LINK.
Hannah Nixon, MD of the PSR, said: “Payment systems underpin almost every financial transaction we make. I want to see a culture where the industry recognises the importance of delivering good outcomes for the people and organisations it services.
“Parliament has given us very strong powers. From our extensive engagement over the last 12 months, I am confident that the industry understands what we are trying to achieve. But if firms do not step up to the mark, we will use those powers to issue directions, impose fines and impose obligations that will force individual players to act differently.”