"Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone in the drive to create open access for non-banking organisations.

"Since our inception, we have been working with the Bank in its capacity as the settlement agency for some UK payment systems to consider greater direct access for innovative fintech organisations.

"It’s one piece of the puzzle, but it’s an important one. If you can open settlement access, organisations will have greater choice in access to payments systems. The wider ripple effect is that with greater access, more companies may innovate and both consumers and businesses will have a greater choice of payment services available to them.

"The challenge now is to turn policy into reality. The Bank of England has made a positive and welcome announcement but it will take some work to introduce the change. We will be working closely with the Bank, the FCA and our stakeholders to bring about the solutions required to successfully implement the transition."

Notes to editors

  1. The PSR was incorporated on 1 April 2014 and became fully operational on 1 April 2015.
  2. The PSR has three statutory objectives: to promote effective competition in the markets for payment systems and for services provided by those systems, including between operators, payment service providers and also infrastructure providers, in the interest of service-users; to promote the development of innovation in payment systems, in particular the infrastructure used to operate payment systems, in the interest of service-users; and to ensure that payment systems are operated and developed in a way that considers and promotes the interests of service-users.
  3. The PSR is the regulator and concurrent competition authority for payment systems in the UK and all participants in payment systems (payment service providers, operators and infrastructure providers to those payment systems).
  4. The PSR website.