PS21/2 – Consumer protection in interbank payments – response to CP21/4

We are publishing the outcome of our review of consumer protections in interbank payments, which explains our assessment of the protections available and where we will focus our attention.

Why we are publishing this document 

At the start of 2021, we published a call for views on consumer protections in interbank payments. In it, we set out our vision for consumer protection and why we think more protection is needed for retail purchases made over Faster Payments. We wanted to assess the best action we can take to continue to support the development of effective protection measures for Faster Payments. 

What this document contains 

This document summarises those responses and provides further detail on our approach going forward. It outlines the key insights we identified after analysing the responses and then sets out our plans to ensure Faster Payments and the service providers that use it continue to innovate in ways that work well for consumers as well as businesses. 

We set out that while we do not propose to intervene in the market at this stage, we do expect all Faster Payments participants to identify and share payment risk levels with other participants and to act responsibly and accordingly to minimise customer harm. We set out the reasons for our decision within this document. The PSR will keep a close eye on developments and intervene if necessary. This is supported by HM Treasury in its published response to its Payments Landscape Review.

Who should read this document 

This document will be of interest to people and businesses using payment systems (including representative bodies), PSPs and PISPs (current and prospective), payments industry representative bodies and interbank payment system operators (national and international).