FCA and PSR detail progress on the UK National Payments Vision

In November 2025, the United Kingdom’s two key payments regulators outlined to the Chancellor how they are progressing the government’s recommendations on payments regulation and delivery priorities. The update sets out an approach that aims to support growth while protecting consumers, and it focuses on making the regulatory landscape more coordinated, accelerating open banking and open finance, reducing fraud, and modernising retail payments infrastructure.

A more coordinated regulatory landscape

A central message is that the Financial Conduct Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator are working in a more collaborative way to manage overlaps and reduce congestion across the regulatory landscape. One practical step is beginning to consolidate certain Payment Systems Regulator functions into the Financial Conduct Authority early where possible. The intention is to smooth the transition, deepen collaboration, and provide clearer, more joined-up engagement for industry stakeholders. The update also highlights joint work on digital wallets, including work following a call for inputs that informed the Competition and Markets Authority Digital Markets Unit Strategic Market Status investigations, and ongoing engagement with the Competition and Markets Authority.

To strengthen system-level coordination, the regulators describe convening industry roundtables and policy and technology sprints so stakeholders receive clearer messages across related initiatives. They also point to work through a Payments Vision Delivery Committee to publish a Payments Forward Plan. This forward plan is intended to sequence initiatives across retail and wholesale payments, while also covering certain aspects of digital assets. In parallel, the regulators describe revising the Memorandum of Understanding with the Bank of England and the Prudential Regulation Authority to embed principles for better cooperation across policy, strategy, and supervision, reducing unnecessary friction for regulated firms.

Open banking delivery and variable recurring payments

The update positions the National Payments Vision as having clarified the direction for open banking, with the goal of enabling faster and cheaper payments and supporting more innovative services. A notable organisational change is the establishment of a new Financial Conduct Authority department incorporating capabilities previously split between the Financial Conduct Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator. This replaced the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee and is framed as a way to streamline decision-making for open banking and open finance.

Operationally, the regulators describe convening sector leaders to remove blockers and publicly supporting industry-led development. They report a positive shift in industry tone alongside progress on developing commercial models for variable recurring payments. Phase 1 is described as lower-risk use cases, such as utility payments, while phase 2 focuses on electronic commerce. The regulators also describe supporting an industry-led group funded by 31 sector parties to establish a new organisation to facilitate the go-live of phase 1 variable recurring payments. In addition, they are working with industry to establish a future entity for open banking ahead of developing a Statutory Instrument with the Treasury and then building the long-term regulatory framework. They also highlight work to ensure remaining actions from the prior roadmap are incorporated into the long-term framework.

On open finance, the regulators describe gathering evidence, identifying beneficial use cases, and supporting testing and experimentation. The Financial Conduct Authority launched a smart data accelerator with applications open for two prioritised open finance use cases: small and medium-sized enterprise lending and mortgages. The stated timeline is a roadmap in early 2026, with regulatory foundations in place during 2027. The update also notes cross-sector work on data sharing with the Department for Business and Trade, linked to the United Kingdom Smart Data strategy and the aim of reducing friction and costs in global finance through cross-border data portability. It also references recent government announcements on digital identity as a potentially significant enabler for payments.

Consumer protection, fraud, and reimbursement outcomes

Consumer protection is framed through the Consumer Duty, with expectations for fair value, clear communications, and support for consumer needs. The update also emphasises work to prevent harm, including fraud and poor product design.

Fraud prevention is highlighted as a shared priority, including efforts to slow authorised push payment fraud losses. The regulators describe exploring opportunities for greater data sharing in payments, noting that many providers already share account and transaction-level data through consortium models. They report that significant commercial initiatives have been launched responding to demand for data sharing, and they indicate they will continue to monitor this space and intervene if regulatory action becomes necessary. The Financial Conduct Authority also describes investing in intelligence and data to target higher-risk firms and activities, including identifying unauthorised financial services promoted through social media.

The update provides quantified outcomes for authorised push payment fraud reimbursement requirements, which came into effect in October 2024. In the first ten months, 88% of money lost to in-scope authorised push payment scams was returned to victims, and 83% of claims were closed within five business days. It also reports 126,000 claims between October 2024 and June 2025, around 15% lower than the comparable period a year earlier. The Payment Systems Regulator has commissioned an independent review of its authorised push payment scams policies, starting in October 2025, with a final report expected by the third quarter of 2026. The update also notes that reimbursement compliance data is shared with the Financial Conduct Authority, so firms’ fraud rates can be monitored, and supervisory engagement can be targeted.

Strong Customer Authentication and infrastructure modernisation

The regulators also refer to the government’s intention to remove certain Strong Customer Authentication requirements from technical standards, enabling the Financial Conduct Authority to incorporate aspects into its rules and guidance to support more agile, outcome-based regulation. In the interim, the Financial Conduct Authority consulted on a new approach to contactless payment limits, which would allow low-risk contactless payments without requiring authentication.

Finally, the update places strong emphasis on modernising retail payment infrastructure. The stated direction is to move toward next-generation technology to support innovation, competitiveness, and security. A new public-private partnership model has been announced to deliver this, alongside short-term work to enhance the resilience and functionality of the existing Faster Payments system. The update also notes the publication of a retail payments infrastructure strategy on 7 November and describes how this will inform design work led by a Bank of England-chaired Retail Payments Infrastructure Board.

Source: FCA and PSR joint response to HM Treasury’s recommendations on payments regulation