PSR responds to the Financial Services and Markets Bill receiving Royal Assent

The PSR welcomes the Treasury's announcement that the Financial Services and Markets Bill has received Royal Assent.

The new Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (FSM Act 23) ushers into law an enhanced regulatory framework which all financial regulators will work within. The new law includes provisions that will enhance the PSR’s regulatory scope and ability to improve payment services for consumers and businesses.

Some of those provisions include:

• Greater protection for victims of APP scams by allowing the PSR to impose reimbursement requirements on participants which operate across the Faster Payments Scheme. This will give consumers greater protections and certainty about how they will be treated if they fall victim to an APP scam.
• Confirms the FCA’s new leading role on access to cash. The PSR will continue its important work in regulating the LINK ATM network, as well as supporting the FCA in its new role.
• Clarifies the PSR’s power to regulate “digital settlement assets”, which are new payment methods, such as firms which operate using distributed ledger technology (including the Sterling Fnality Payment System).
• Repeals retained EU law, enabling the government and regulators to replace it with rules tailored to UK markets. This will provide more effective and efficient regulations and ensure the PSR’s regulatory framework is fit for the future.

Chris Hemsley, Managing Director of the PSR says:

“This new act marks an important step in the development of the UK’s payment systems and the way we can regulate those systems.

“We now have greater scope to make essential changes that will see increased protections for people against the threat of APP scams, open up access to new products and services and encourage innovative new solutions in our increasingly digital world.”