A new strategy announced Aiming to transform UK Retail Payments Infrastructure

This time last year the UK Government announced the National Payments Vision, to enable the UK to become a world-leading payments ecosystem which established the Payments Vision Delivery Committee. In July this year the Committee announced a new governance model for setting the strategy for the design delivery of the new infrastructure to be taken forward by the new Retail Payments Infrastructure Board. For payment service providers (PSPs) operating in the UK, this strategy signals fundamental changes to the competitive landscape over the coming years. 

The Committee’s priority is for the next-generation infrastructure to deliver a more customer/ business friendly approach to ‘account-to-account’ payments akin to the success of Brazil’s PIX system, the strategy also aims at being future proof for emerging forms of money like stablecoins, programmable payments (including those based on DLT, or incorporating the use of AI) and tokenised deposits, but also keeping the strategy adaptable for use cases which do not yet exist. 

Governance model

For reference there are several new ‘bodies’ following the July 2025 announcement which introduced the new governance model to drive the strategy, it is based on collaboration between the public and private sectors and is comprised of:

• Payments Vision Delivery Committee (PVDC): Chaired by HM Treasury and comprising the Bank of England, the FCA and PSR.
• Retail Payments Infrastructure Board (RPIB): Set up by the Bank of England, the Board will include broad representation from across the payment’s ecosystem (banking section, fintech as well as merchants and end users). The Board will translate the vision and strategy set by the PVDC into design, including through consultation with the broader payments ecosystem and end-users. Membership of RPIB will automatically include the Chair/CEO of the Delivery Company, senior representation from Pay.UK and an observer from FCA / PSR. RPIB appointed members of the board in October 2025, the list of nominated members can be found here.
• Delivery Company: An industry-owned entity responsible for procuring and funding next-generation infrastructure, chaired by industry with broad representation from across the payments ecosystem. In July 2025, it was announced that Vim Maru (Chief Executive Officer, Barclays UK) had offered to act as the chair designate of the Delivery Company.

Summary of the proposals

In short, the Strategy aims at fulfilling the three pillars of the National Payments Vision: innovation, competition and security. Future proofing the strategy for the long-term strategy will be a challenge for the PVDC which is tasked with thinking beyond a like-for-like upgraded to the existing Faster Payment System and Bacs Payment Systems and the challenges it may bring to businesses from fraud, cyber threats and wider disruption to users. As a result of the changing environment the Committees Strategy for retail payments infrastructure is realistic in its approach suggesting it will need to adapt its route to also delivering some goals over time.

 The Strategy focuses on 5 key outcomes for the future of the retail payments infrastructure. 

1. consumers and businesses have a greater choice of innovative and cost-effective payment options that meet their needs;
2. payments operate seamlessly as part of a diverse multi-money ecosystem, with interoperability between new and existing forms of digital money;
3. consumers and businesses can trust that their payments are protected from fraud and wider financial crime;
4. participant firms have fair, transparent and non-discriminatory access to the infrastructure, maximising competition and scope for innovation across the payment’s ecosystem;
5. the payments ecosystem is operationally and financially resilient. 

This will include changes such as:

• The next-generation infrastructure for the account-to-account payments at the point of sale, including supporting Open Banking.
• Programmable payments such as those combined with AI
• Creating an infrastructure which by design, meets diverse consumer needs and vulnerabilities.
• Digital money should be interoperable fair and open between existing a new forms of digital money, including commercial bank money, e-money, tokenised deposits, stablecoins and new forms of digital money which may emerge in the future.
• The infrastructure should deliver appropriate protections for users for financial crime and fraud. Robust customer authentication methods should be deployed to boost businesses and customer confidence in their payments.
• To support an infrastructure that enables a level playing field, commercially viable businesses models should achieve a transparent, fair and predictable pricing methodology and governance framework.
• The ecosystem needs end-to-end operational resilience both during the transition to the new transition and in the steady state, it also involves establishing a funding model that enables ongoing investment in the infrastructure
• The infrastructure should also be designed in a way which takes into account potential adoption of a digital pound or potentially other GBP fiat-backed stablecoins.

The RPIB will oversee infrastructure delivery the Deliver Company, who will be responsible for procuring and funding the delivery of the next-generation infrastructure. 

Conclusion

The Strategy seems promising in ensuring that the new infrastructure is geared to being flexible to innovation and technology. This would potentially make the UK payments ecosystem very attractive to emerging and experimental technologies. However, although change, flexibility and interoperability is positive we assume the existing hurdles will still remain such as getting customers to steer away the ease of their existing payment methods, ensuring the pace of technological change doesn’t out pace regulation, and of course the ecosystem can also keep pace with developing methods of financial crime and fraud. We look forward to seeing how these will be addressed by the PVDC.

Our Payment Services Regulatory team will be monitoring next steps and will keep you up-to-speed with the latest developments. Please do get in touch with the team if you have any questions or would like any assistance with exploring a gap analysis on existing processes or training on how to prepare to ensure compliance with the new regime. 

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