Today, the PSR sets out its decisions on varying Specific Direction (SD) 2 and SD 3. The revised directions come following its consultation earlier this year on the changes it proposed to make to these directions to implement its decisions on lowering risks to successful delivery of the New Payments Architecture (NPA) (CP21/8).

In CP21/8, the PSR proposed to give directions (SDs 2a and 3a) varying SDs 2 and 3. The PSR has now given SDs 2a and 3a to Pay.UK. There are three substantive changes from the draft versions of SDs 2a and 3a consulted on. The PSR has:

  • changed the SD2 reporting requirements so that Pay.UK must submit a plan for developing the Bacs strategy to the PSR by 31 March 2023 and then submit subsequent reports on progress within nine months of the previous report
  • moved the SD3 compliance deadline to 1 July 2026 (rather than 1 April as originally proposed) to provide for some additional contingency given there is less certainty about the baseline plan upon which the deadline is based
  • reinstated provisions in SDs 2 and 3 that allow us to amend the compliance deadlines for those directions recognise that with a programme of the size and scale of the NPA, factors outside of Pay.UK’s direct control could arise that mean it is unable to meet these deadlines

The changes implemented as a result of the new SDs 2 and 3 come into force on 1 January 2022 and the PSR will carefully monitor Pay.UK’s compliance with the requirements of the updated directions.