The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published three core commitments for the final two years of its five-year strategy to foster growth, innovation and competition in the UK payments landscape.PSR delivers strategy updateIn the first of these commitments, the regulator aims to “fully embed” its APP fraud reimbursement requirements, backed by an independent review, and deliver the outcome of its card market reviews, which were last updated in November.This step will also see the PSR “work closely” with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to “take forward work” regarding a commercial framework for open banking payments, with phase one focusing on Variable Recurring Payments (VRP).The second commitment will see the PSR work with the Bank of England to “drive forward” an update to the Faster Payments Service (FPS) and “reform of Pay.UK“, which initially launched in 2013. This update is expected to include an assessment of the “long term retail infrastructure needs” of FPS.The final commitment pertains to the regulator building out its innovation capability, with a focus on “removing unnecessary barriers to payments innovation” in consideration of the UK Government’s economic growth initiatives and National Payments Vision (NPV).To support the final two years of this strategy, in collaboration with the FCA, the PSR has created a new joint role of managing director of the PSR, and executive director of payments and digital assets at the FCA.In comments, David Geale, managing director of the PSR, states that despite the strategy making “great progress” since first being launched in 2022, “we know there’s more to do”.“By taking ambitious but realistic action, we can ensure payment systems remain competitive and innovative, delivering real benefits for users and supporting economic growth,” comments Geale. “Collaboration with others has been key to our success so far, and it will remain central to how we achieve our priorities.”
Lun. Gen 20th, 2025
