The UK’s new Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has set out its plans to regulate the £75 trillion payments industry when it becomes fully operational on 1 April 2015.
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The proposals will further the PSR’s three objectives: to promote competition, to promote innovation, and to ensure that payment systems are developed and operated in the interests of service-users.
The PSR says it intends to create a Payment Strategy Forum with broad stakeholder representation to chart the future direction of new payments initiatives.
It will also undertake two market reviews to assess the ownership and competitiveness of the current infrastructure and look at how indirect access is provided.
Hannah Nixon, managing director of the PSR, said: "The systems we have today have been developed incrementally over time by the major banks.
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By GlobalData"So while they are relatively resilient, they are often treated as back office functions. Competition is limited, decision making opaque, and this is stifling innovation. This has to change."
The PSR has said that it will regulate the largest and most important payment systems which, if they were to fail or be disrupted, would cause serious consequences to their users.
HM Treasury is currently consulting which systems to include and has proposed the main interbank payment systems: Bacs, CHAPS, Faster Payments, LINK, Cheque and Credit Clearing, Northern Ireland Cheque Clearing, and the two largest card systems in the UK, MasterCard and Visa.
