Today the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published its Annual Plan and Budget, setting out its key aims, activities and costs for 2024/25.  

The Annual Plan highlights that this year, the third of its five-year Strategy, will be an important one for consolidating the delivery of the PSR’s valuable work to improve payments for people and businesses across the UK. The PSR has already made significant progress against its strategic priorities, and its focus is now on ensuring its policies and requirements are implemented effectively. These include:  

Better outcomes through competition 

The PSR is always working to encourage competition and industry developments so that the UK can benefit from world-leading payment systems. In particular, the PSR is driving changes to unlock greater use of open banking for payments.  

New ways of using account-to-account payments can give people more flexibility and control over their money, and the potential to bring down the costs of accepting payments for many businesses.    

As co-chair of the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee, the PSR is committed to delivering the roadmap for the future of open banking in the UK. The expansion of variable recurring payments (VRP) to regulated utility companies, more types of financial transfers, and payments to central and local government are an integral part of this work. The PSR’s phased approach to promoting more competition will also see account-to-account payments available for a wider variety of retail uses, both online and in person.  

Another key way the PSR is addressing competition is through its market reviews of card fees. The PSR is looking at whether competition is acting effectively in the cards market, and if it concludes that it is not, the PSR will take appropriate action.  

This year, the market reviews will be moving towards any remedies and their implementation. The PSR will engage with industry about its conclusions and if it determines action is needed, people and businesses can expect to see appropriate measures put in place as soon as possible.   

Protecting people now and in the future  

The PSR’s ground-breaking reimbursement rules for Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud take effect from 7 October this year. They incentivise all payment firms to deal with fraud before it harms their customers, and to do more to look after victims consistently.  

Substantially improving transparency, the PSR will continue to publish fraud statistics, showing people the full extent of how well – or not – payment firms are doing in tackling APP fraud and treating their customers.  

The PSR’s Confirmation of Payee (CoP) requirements will also expand to hundreds of more firms this year. These will now cover 99% of all Faster Payments transactions, preventing more fraud and misdirected payments. 

Chris Hemsley, Managing Director of the PSR, said: 

“At the heart of our five-year Strategy is making sure that payments and the systems that underpin them work well for everyone.  

 “We’ve made significant progress over the last two years in delivering against our strategic priorities, and this year is about consolidating that delivery. We’re going from putting in place building blocks for an ambitious and transformative future, to making good on those ambitions. Our new consumer protections against APP fraud and unlocking greater use of open banking for payments are just a couple of the big changes we’re driving forward this year.”   

Assessing the PSR Strategy 

As the halfway point of the PSR’s five-year Strategy approaches this year, the regulator will work with stakeholders to review its progress, and revise or refine its priorities as necessary to secure the right outcomes for UK payment systems.   

ENDS. 

Notes:  

  • You can find out more about our key activities from our 2024/25 work plan, available here. We have also produced a short introductory animation which will be shared on our social media channels: PSR LinkedIn and Twitter.  
  • On 9 May 2024, we are holding an event to hear from stakeholders about the plan and discuss it in more detail. This will also include a media session – more information on this will be provided soon.   
  • The latest Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee update in December 2023 provides more detail on the phased rollout of VRP and other actions to progress open banking in the UK.