The future of payments?
17 Jul 2023
2 min read
HM Treasury has published a call for input on the independent Future of Payments Review 2023 (the "Review"), together with the relevant terms of reference, to examine how payments are likely to be made in the future and the steps needed to enable the UK to deliver world leading retail payments.
Call for input
The Review adopts a ‘consumer needs’ lens (including individuals and businesses making and receiving retail payments) and aims to make recommendations for government, financial services regulators and industry.
Stakeholders are asked to provide views on the following questions:
- What are the most important consumer retail payment journeys both today and in the next 5 years? For example, paying a friend, paying a bill, paying businesses for goods and services, in the UK or internationally.
- For these journeys today, how does the UK consumer experience for individuals and businesses compare versus other leading countries? For example, the quality of experience, security or cost.
- Looking at the in-flight plans and initiatives across the payments landscape, how likely are they to deliver world leading payment journeys for UK consumers?
The call for input closes on 1st September. Once closed, responses will be analysed and a report and recommendations will be provided to the government in Autumn 2023.
Terms of reference
In answering these questions, the Review is asked to consider how the UK’s retail payment systems and networks need to evolve to:
- catalyse innovation in payment services;
- serve the future retail payments needs of businesses and consumers;
- support interoperability with new forms of digital money, including insofar as the role of banks is concerned (but not considering stablecoins or central bank digital currency (CBDC) policy);
- support interoperability with global payment systems;
- ensure accessible and inclusive digital payments;
- ensure resilient and secure payments.
As part of this, the Review may consider the steps needed to build from the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee’s (JROC’s) report on the future of Open Banking to drive uptake in retail account-to-account payments.
The Review may also consider developments in the UK payments industry’s New Payments Architecture (NPA), and may make recommendations building from (not replacing) NPA plans.
"Technological innovation continues at pace, and various initiatives – across government, regulators and industry – are underway as the UK looks ahead to the next generation of payments. The government is committed to supporting an innovative, efficient and resilient payments sector, which fosters competition and serves consumers and businesses well."