We have published our second report on access to payment systems and the governance of payment system operators in the UK.

This follows our first access and governance report, published in December 2015.

Why are we publishing this report?

Improving access to payment systems and making the governance of payment system operators more inclusive and transparent are key priorities for the PSR.

We are publishing this report to update stakeholders on the progress of our programme of work. The last 12 months have been encouraging and we expect the operators and indirect access providers (IAPs) to build on this success in 2017.

We explain where we consider there could be further improvements on access, and the work we expect to happen during 2017 to keep the momentum going. 

We have produced a factsheet that summarises this report which you may find useful.

Who should read this paper?

This report is relevant to the operators of the payment systems, payment service providers accessing the systems and anybody with an interest in the way the operators run them.

What does the report say?

This report outlines the progress that has been made in realising five key outcomes: 

  • Choice in accessing payment systems and services
  • Time to gain access to payment systems
  • Value for money
  • Quality of service provided
  • Engagement and transparency

We explain where we want to see further improvements that we think are necessary, and hope to see progress in the following work over the next year:

  • Work for operators: We expect the operators to finish their work in developing access models and solutions that facilitate the development of aggregators by the end of the year. We also want the operators to be ready to start onboarding non-bank PSPs if the Bank of England changes its settlement account policy and necessary legislative changes are made.
  • Work for IAPs: We would like the IAPs to reflect on feedback about the visibility and impact of the voluntary Code of Conduct they have developed, and consider what work they can do to improve PSPs’ awareness of and confidence in the Code. We also expect the IAPs to address a number of quality-related issues affecting PSPs who choose indirect access.

Next steps

We will continue to closely monitor developments in the provision of access. There will be a number of changes this year, including the implementation of the second EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and the potential consolidation of three operators (the operators of Bacs, FPS and Cheque and Credit (C&C)). We plan to review our existing directions later in the year to ensure they properly reflect these changes and remain effective.

Further information

The annex of this report provides an overview and non-confidential section of each of the annual compliance reports that operators submitted to us, and the work the operators have carried out in response to the focus areas we set out in our first access and governance report.

You may also want to read the final report of our indirect access market review published in July 2016.

Share this page: