The Payments Association, a trade body representing the payments industry in the UK, has released its 2027 manifesto, which includes calls for payments to be treated as critical national infrastructure alongside sectors such as energy, telecommunications and transport.

The manifesto outlines a national strategy for enabling what the body calls trusted, competitive and innovative payments by 2030 and is structured around four interconnected national objectives. It draws on engagement with membership, and has been reviewed by the association’s advisory board, the group added.

The strategy also draws on the government’s National Payments Vision, which was published in 2024 and forms part of a wider programme to modernise the UK payments sector.

Its growth, competitiveness and resilience objective focuses on modernising UK payments infrastructure through interoperability and resilience, while creating the conditions for payments businesses to grow and compete internationally.

Trust, security and consumer protection calls for earlier fraud prevention through intelligence sharing and accountability across the fraud chain, alongside improvements in financial inclusion, capability and meaningful payment choice.

The AI, data and digital infrastructure objective seeks trusted rules for secure and accountable agentic payments, supported by internationally interoperable standards for agentic commerce.

Finally, the future of money and payments calls for coherent, proportionate and internationally interoperable regulation for next-generation payments, including stablecoins and tokenised money.

Emma Banymandhub, chief executive of The Payments Association, said: “The assumption that payments can run on autopilot while facing mounting fraud and digital disruption has to end. Payments are the vital economic lifeblood keeping society functioning.

“If money stopped moving for even five minutes, the fallout would be significant. We aren't just presenting a wish list. Our members are stepping up to deliver the accountability, infrastructure and cross-sector collaboration required to future-proof the UK economy.”

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