Supporting innovation in payment systems
Innovation is essential for improving payment systems: it drives economic growth and enhances user experiences, whether that’s through new services, improvements to existing systems, or entirely new products and systems.
By promoting trust in payments, supporting effective competition and innovation, and through proportionate, effective regulation, we can play our role in supporting a growing, competitive payments sector.
Our commitment to innovation as we consolidate mainly into the FCA
In our 2025 strategy update, we emphasised our increased focus on innovation, competition, and growth.
Working more closely with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Bank of England and other authorities will let us deliver better outcomes and fully realise the opportunities for UK payments.
As the PSR will consolidate mainly into the FCA to streamline regulation, it will be particularly crucial to continue to work together on innovation, to ensure a smooth transition to a future regulatory regime which continues to support innovation in payment systems.
We will focus on a realistic and targeted set of deliverables, including actively engaging with innovators to gain insights into barriers and enablers to innovation and providing a contact point for innovators seeking our steer on issues within our payment systems remit.
We will work closely with the FCA to ensure a continued focus on innovation. Our collaboration will build on existing joint engagement between the PSR and FCA, including initiatives such as Sprints, engagement with the fintech community, and our participation in the Global Financial Innovation Network.
Our approach
We strongly believe in supporting the right conditions for innovation to thrive. Here’s how we’re doing this, working closely with the FCA:
- Understanding more about innovation enablers and barriers in payment systems
Over the coming months, we’ll continue to talk to innovators to gather insights on what enables or hinders innovation in payment systems. This includes in relation to current infrastructure (linking to our work with other authorities on the National Payments Vision), scheme rules and operations, and market incentives. - A space to support and steer innovators
We’re here to support you where it’s in our remit. Whether you’re developing new potential payment systems, or payment products that use existing payments systems or where the systems are impacting innovation. We’ll work with FCA Innovation, providing clarity and steers on how your innovations align with our regulatory goals. We’ll continue to contribute our expertise in FCA-led initiatives, such as supporting firms through the regulatory and digital sandboxes, collaborating through Sprints, considering joint initiatives, and hosting roundtables with the fintech community. More information can be found on the FCA Innovation webpage. We’ve launched a dedicated contact point for all innovation-related queries on payment systems, so reach out to us at innovation@psr.org.uk to see how we can support you. - Improving outcomes and supporting economic growth
We’re committed to proportionate regulation and assessing the impact of our approach on innovation. We’ll focus on our role as an economic regulator in promoting innovation to improve outcomes and support economic growth.
We believe this focus – and close collaboration with the FCA – will help in driving and maintaining the conditions for innovation in the UK payments ecosystem to thrive, supporting economic growth, and ensuring that the UK remains at the forefront of payment systems development.
What’s next?
Are you working on something innovative in payments system? Reach out to us at innovation@psr.org.uk to see how we can support you, working with the FCA.
Find out more about the FCA Innovation and how to apply.
Find out more about the innovative work we're doing.
