This article was written by Gareth Malna.
It has acknowledged that the impact of COVID-19 could cause it to adapt some of the activities in the plan, but it commits to communicating any changes as they happen.
To key priority for the PSR is to continue to open up access to payment systems for users and to promote both effective competition for payment systems services and the interests of users (particularly as they relate to fraud prevention and protection). In the very near term this is primarily focussed on supporting organisations and their customers – including by providing additional flexibility to firms around the implementation of Confirmation of Payee where firms are taking appropriate steps to protect customers, and extending the deadline for responding to the PSR’s Call for Input on the New Payments Architecture (NPA).
Other key projects include:
- The development, in conjunction with Pay.UK, of the NPA, which will create an entirely new infrastructure in the UK for the making of digital payments
- Ensuring that people can continue to access and use cash from ATMs where needed, despite increasing moves towards the digitisation of payments
- Supervising the market for card-acquiring services to make sure it works well and is supported by effective competition
- Increasing work to supervise authorised push payment scams and to protect victims who have already been defrauded
- Tacking anti-competitive conduct to create a credible deterrence against such behaviour.
In the longer term, the PSR will be looking to ensure it has the right internal balance of payments, regulatory economic and legal expertise and will develop a clear statement on longer-term strategy, which we will report on when there are further developments.
Note: as explained in a dedicated COVID-19 section in the document, the PSR will continuously review its work to ensure it is focusing on the right areas and adapting its approach to meet the challenges COVID-19 presents