This year we’ve conducted a market review of the supply of indirect access to payment systems. In our final report we identified a number of unresolved concerns about access:
- Small non agency indirect PSPs (IPSPs) have a limited choice of indirect access providers (IAPS).
- IPSPs in all categories are experiencing a number of specific quality related issues with indirect access.
- IPSPs face barriers to switching.
At the same time we’ve identified a number of market and regulatory developments that we believe will address these concerns. This survey will help us understand the industry’s views on these developments, and the impact they’ve had so far.
We’ve produced a PDF version of the survey for your convenience. The questions are numbered for ease of reference.
Please note that we can only accept responses submitted through the online questionnaire.
Further information - glossary
A glossary of the terms used in the survey can be found below:
Payment Service Providers (PSPs) can have either direct or indirect access to interbank payment systems.
A PSP has indirect access to a payment system if it has a contractual arrangement with an indirect access provider (IAP) to enable it to transfer funds on behalf of its customers and to provide payment services to those customers.
A PSP has direct access to a payment system if it has an arrangement with the operator (and other participants, as applicable) that allows it to provide services enabling the transfer of funds using that payment system. PSPs with direct access are referred to as direct PSPs (DPSPs). DPSPs process their payments through a direct technical connection to the payment system’s central infrastructure (or similar arrangement). They also settle their payments directly by holding a settlement account in their name with the Bank of England.