Summary

This report describes the number of whistleblowing disclosures we received in the financial year 1 April 2018 – 31 March 2019, and summarises any action we took following those disclosures. We are required to report on this annually.

Purpose

The Payment Systems Regulator (‘PSR’) is a prescribed person as defined in the Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Persons) Order 2014. This order requires us to accept and act on concerns about payment systems and the services provided by them.

We are required by The Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations 2017 (‘The 2017 Regulations’) to provide an annual report on disclosures of information that we received during the period 1 April to 31 March. 

Regulation 5 of the 2017 Regulations stipulates that the report must contain:

a.    the number of workers’ disclosures received that we reasonably believe are:

i.    qualifying disclosures1 within the meaning of section 43B of the Employment Rights Act 1996; and
ii.    which fall within the matters in respect of which the PSR is prescribed

b.    the number of those disclosures in relation to which we decided to take further action

c.    a summary of:

i.    the action that we have taken in respect of the workers’ disclosures; and
ii.    how workers’ disclosures have impacted on our ability to perform our functions and meet our objectives

d.    an explanation of the PSR’s functions and objectives

We have published this report to comply with the reporting obligations as set out the 2017 Regulations.

Report

In the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 inclusive:

(a)(i)    The PSR received one disclosure of information for assessment as a potentially qualifying disclosure. 

(a)(ii)    Following assessment by our Whistleblowing Team, we treated 0 disclosures as qualifying disclosures from workers which fell within our remit as a prescribed person.2  

(b)    We decided to act on 0 disclosures. 

(c)i    Not applicable – there were no qualifying disclosures for us to act on.

(c)ii    Not applicable – since there were no qualifying disclosures, there was no impact our ability to perform our functions and achieve our objectives during the reporting period.

(d)    The PSR3 must to act in a way which advances one or more of the following objectives, so far as reasonably possible, when discharging our general functions relating to payment systems:

  • Promote effective competition for payment systems and the markets for services provided by payment systems.
  • Promote the development of, and innovation in, payment systems in the interest of those who use them. 
  • Ensure that payment systems are operated and developed in a way that takes account of, and promotes the interests of service users.

Under the Financial Services (Banking Reform Act) 2013, we regulate:

  • the eight payment systems that have been designated by the Treasury: Bacs, CHAPS, Faster Payments, LINK, Cheque and Credit, Northern Ireland Cheque Clearing, Mastercard, and Visa 
  • providers in relation to a payment system who provide services to those who are not participants in the system, for the purposes of enabling the transfer of funds using the payment system – such as banks, building societies, merchant acquirers 
  • the companies that provide the infrastructure for payment systems – the connections that make the systems work
  • those with responsibility for managing or operating a payment system