The payments landscape continues to evolve and this blog shares some of the topics that caught my attention during the last three months. If you think I’ve missed anything important, do please send an email to technical@treasurers.org.
Regulatory announcements:
• In March, it was announced that the UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) would be absorbed by the Financial Conduct Authority in order to reduce the regulatory burden, overlapping responsibilities and costs for financial services organisations.
• Following its review into scheme and processing fees, the PSR is now consulting on 4 key remedies:
o Better information for merchants and acquirers by requiring Mastercard and Visa to provide more transparency on fees
o Regulatory financial reporting to allow the PSR to effectively monitor and understand the schemes’ financial performance on fees charged in the UK
o Better pricing governance to address the PSR’s concerns around the schemes’ pricing decisions
o Publication of scheme information to increase transparency and ensure schemes can be held to account
• The FCA launched an Engagement Paper on Contactless Payment Limits in response to calls for the limits and methodology to be amended
Interesting reports:
• The Bank for International Settlements' Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), together with the G7 Presidency, organised a conference to expedite the interlinking of fast payment systems (FPS) in July 2024. A summary of the high-level findings of the conference focused on:
o The interlinking of safe and efficient FPS. Work is under way in many jurisdictions to enhance FPS readiness to participate in such links, particularly to improve their functionality and align with messaging and compliance standards. Successful links to date have prioritised interoperability and smoothly managed coordination between the public and private sectors and among jurisdictions.
o Bilateral links: It is expected that FPS links in the near term will continue to be based on bilateral links, while over the longer term, these may coexist with more open and future-proof multilateral arrangements. Over time, the market will likely evolve to link between regional groupings.
o High quality data: High-quality data at the jurisdictional level can help to gain useful insights for the planning and establishment of interlinking arrangements.
• Worldpay issued its Global Payments Report 2025. One key finding was that 57% of global e-commerce is now conducted via a mobile device.
Naresh Aggarwal
15 April 2025
