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Bob Lyddon

Bob Lyddon Consultant at Lyddon Consulting Services

Pay.uk’s Byzantine organisation promises longevity for New Payments Architecture programme

The Byzantine Empire is deemed to have emerged in 476 A.D., its being based on the residual Eastern Roman Empire at the point at which the Western one collapsed. The Byzantine Empire survived for nearly a thousand years, until brought to an end by the sack of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453. Pay.uk’s project to build a New Payments Architect...

/payments Transaction Banking

Bob Lyddon

Bob Lyddon Consultant at Lyddon Consulting Services

UK’s New Payments Architecture fully live by 2030, indicatively

Pay.uk have issued their February 2019 NPA Programme Industry Newsletter, entitled “Enabling a vibrant UK economy”, NPA standing for New Payments Architecture. The title should have had “…in the 2030s” appended to it, since that is the timeline inferred by the newsletter’s content, if not by its form or wording. There is a beguiling diagramme, show...

/payments Transaction Banking

Bob Lyddon

Bob Lyddon Consultant at Lyddon Consulting Services

Cheques to be excluded from UK's New Payments Architecture

Once again cheques in the UK are facing their demise, this time as a consequence of their being excluded from the New Payments Architecture project, or "NPA". This time it will be a slow and lingering death over a 10-15 year period, as investment is channeled into other services and the cheque service withers on the vine. Ten years ago a ...

/payments Transaction Banking

Bob Lyddon

Bob Lyddon Consultant at Lyddon Consulting Services

Project Carlton research - a stock take on the PSR and PSF 2014-2018 and the cupboard is bare

Project Carlton has been conceived as a stock take of the efforts to reform the UK payments business since 2014 and to evaluate the case for a change in direction. The reform efforts have been spearheaded by the Payment Systems Regulator and its creature the Payment Strategy Forum. They have involved a supporting cast of hundreds, including several...

/payments Transaction Banking

Bob Lyddon

Bob Lyddon Consultant at Lyddon Consulting Services

Golden Visa business alive and well

Governments such as the UK have come under renewed pressure to limit or suspend visa systems which have the effect of offering visas, residency or passports to the rich-and-famous, if they “invest” in the country concerned. Recent editions of the British Airways “High Life” magazine have included an insert from St Kitts and Nevis that reads initial...

/payments /regulation Open Banking

Bob Lyddon

Bob Lyddon Consultant at Lyddon Consulting Services

Brexit Withdrawal Agreement gives the EU ample scope to continue to spend on the UK's credit card

The Daily Express issued a “shock horror” story on 30th December that the EU was in financial meltdown over the loss of the UK’s budget contributions. This seems overstated. They have no need to worry for a little while if they get their €40 billion “divorce settlement” – which will be used to cover normal expenditure and not the items that it was ...

/payments SEPA and European Payments

Bob Lyddon

Bob Lyddon Consultant at Lyddon Consulting Services

Phase 2 of Project Carlton on UK payments landscape: submerged by paper mountain

The last update we gave was that the sponsor of Project Carlton had signed off on the initial research and endorsed its sharing for validation with five or six interested parties. We did that, got very favourable responses, and have then: presented aspects of the research at industry events; used the research as a basis for a submission to the Tre...

/payments /retail Transaction Banking

Bob Lyddon

Bob Lyddon Consultant at Lyddon Consulting Services

BoE fears for UK stability due to Italian banking crisis. Unicredit needs EUR35bn more capital

The Bank of England recently woke up and issued its Financial Stability Report and Stress Test results - November 2018. In it the Bank warned that a “further deterioration in Italy’s financial outlook could result in material spillovers to the euro area and the UK”. In its more detailed comments the Bank noted that Italian Non-performing loans (NP...

/wholesale Trends in Financial Services

Bob Lyddon

Bob Lyddon Consultant at Lyddon Consulting Services

Bank of England UK stability fears on Italy banking crisis. Unicredit needs EUR35bn more capital

The Bank of England recently issued its Financial Stability Report and Stress Test results - November 2018. In it the Bank warned that 2 “further deterioration in Italy’s financial outlook could result in material spillovers to the euro area and the UK”. In its more detailed comments the Bank noted that Italian Non-performing loans (NPLs) account f...

/regulation /wholesale SEPA and European Payments

Bob Lyddon

Bob Lyddon Consultant at Lyddon Consulting Services

Italian government decides on path out of Budget dispute with the EU - with a FinTech innovation

The bridge over the Rubicon has been built and we now just wait for Caesar to cross it - key decision-makers in Rome have decided how to get themselves out of their impasse between their proposed Budget and EU Fiscal Stability rules. They have made up their mind to issue a parallel currency denominated in Euro in 2019, in the form of banknote-sized...

/wholesale Fintech innovation and startups

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