The UK government has published its National Payments Vision (NPV), a strategic plan that aims to boost the UK payments industry.

The Vision, which is part of the government's broader mission to support economic growth and improve living standards across the United Kingdom, has set several goals aimed at strengthening the landscape, facilitate competition, and ensuring security.

Top priorities include strengthening coordination to address “congestion” in the regulatory landscape, supporting the development of Open Banking, and ensuring high standards of consumer protection so that individuals and businesses can make payments efficiently and safely.

Economic secretary to the Treasury Tulip Siddiq explained that the government is taking a number of decisive steps to achieve its ambitions.

“This includes a package of actions to cut through the current regulatory congestion facing the sector and steering the approach to vital upgrades that are needed to the UK’s underlying payments infrastructure,” she said.

She added that to achieve these goals, regulators will work with the payments sector through the “7 Payments Vision Delivery Committee”, a senior cross authority group chaired by HM Treasury with the aim to give voice to all stakeholders.

“The UK must act quickly to seize the opportunities of the future, or risk falling behind international peers,” the plan states.

The plan includes proposals for the reform of Pay.UK, the recognised operator and standards body for the UK's interbank payment systems, to be delivered by the Committee within the next six months.

The Committee is also tasked with publishing a sequenced plan of broader future initiatives within the next nine to 12 months.

The Vision addresses findings from the independent Future of Payments Review 2023, led by Joe Garner, which highlighted many positives for the UK payments sector to build on, including its strong banking, cards and digital wallets environment and a well-established regulatory framework.

The FCA published a statement welcoming the Treasury’s payment strategy, adding that it embraces technological change to better serve people and businesses.

“The changes announced today will help ensure better coordination and clearer regulatory responsibilities,” it said. “We will continue to work closely with the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), the Bank of England and the government to deliver the vision we share.”

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