PSR - Access to markets update

In January I wrote that the PSR was one of the things to watch in this year, and I’ve been surprised by the amount of pace they have made in such a short time through their excellent forum.

There has been a round of workshops throughout January and I was privileged to chair a sub-group that looked at the access processes used by industry participants when looking to use the core schemes of the payments industry.

All the working groups reported to the PSR Forum which has been set up to allow debate about the core concerns both providers and users of payments services have today.  The reports can be found here: Payments Forum

The workshops I attended were lively affairs with a good exchange of views from industry as well as regulators and financial institutions.  The main ideas I drew (personal and in no way official) from the discussions were:

The next round of discussions is being held now and the Forum web site will continue to publish papers and reports if you’re interested.

My own (personal) take on the possible solutions for accessing markets is:

• We'll see the banks lose their control over the core infrastructure.  See Banks should sell their stakes in payments infrastructures.  See MasterCard expresses interest in buying VocaLink.
• We should establish a UK Payments Standards Authority that would determine and manage all standards requirements for the UK Payments industry.
• We need to create a UK Payments Access Body that would oversee access by any institution to the UK PSOs and Infrastructures and set on-boarding rules.
• We should look at building a single UK Payments Infrastructure Governing Body that sets the rules for the UK Payments Infrastructure.
• Within the PSR we need to develop a UK Payments Regulatory Authority that in consultation with the FCA and BoE would establish the banking and financial rules for UK Payments participants and that manages (regulates) the schemes.

It’s not too late to get involved, contact the Forum to make your views known.

Further Reading

Also of note for reading as background material, read the following publications:

• Financial Services Trade Associations Review – Final Report
• BACS Access to Payments Systems
• Payments UK Response to PSR Interim Report
• Payments UK – Report into UK Payments Habits Compare
• PSR Report – Interim Report into Infrastructure Provision
• PSR Report – Lipis Report into Payments System Ownership of 12 Overseas Payments Systems
• FCA Report – PSR Governance
• Payments UK – World Class Payments