Payments industry and regulatory round up (Feb 22)
Issue 264 | 15 February 2022
Welcome to issue 264 of Payments:Unpacked, this premium subscriber edition provides a round-up of payment related developments at Pay.UK, the Payment Systems Regulator, the Bank of England, HM Treasury, the FCA and the Open Banking Implementation Entity.
Period covered: 16 December 2021 to 15 February 2022.
Pay.UK
£1 million Faster Payments now possible
Payment service providers (PSPs) can now enable Faster Payments of up to £1 million as a result of an increase to the Faster Payment System limit. Before this the limit per payment was £250,000.
The Faster Payment System’s status as a world-class service is backed by the strong demand we continue to see amongst consumers, businesses and corporate users. We believe that increasing the maximum payment value to £1 million will continue to broaden the appeal of the service, helping to meet all users’ needs. In addition, it will open up opportunities for businesses to provide new services to their customers, enabled by our higher value 24/7 service.
David Pitt, Chief Executive Officer at Pay.UK
More: £1 million Faster Payments now possible
Current Account Switch Service levels accelerate in final months of 2021
Close to a quarter of a million switches (248,902) took place between October and December 2021. This is 36,302 more than in Q3 2021, and 59,629 more than in Q4 2020
94,822 switches took place in October 2021, the highest monthly volume since March 2020
7.8 million switches have now been processed since the service launched in 2013, and awareness and satisfaction levels sit at 75 per cent and 91 per cent respectively
Nationwide was the participant with the highest net gains in Q3 2021, followed by Starling Bank Monzo Bank, Santander and Virgin Money.
More:
Attitudes to and usage of cheques
In Q1 2021, Pay.UK commissioned Accord Research to conduct primary research into the usage and attitude towards cheques among consumers, business, schools and charities. The research was scoped to understand and gather insights into:
past, current and expected future use of cheques;
underlying preferences and behaviours that result in consumers and businesses using cheques and understanding any recent change in this behaviour;
payment methods that are seen as effective alternatives to cheques;
and the impact of the pandemic on use of cheques.
The research used both quantitative and qualitative methods to gather data and insights.
Download: Attitudes to and usage of cheques.
Board Minutes
10 November 2021: Covering stakeholder engagement, NPA update, increase to FPS limit, future of CASS and a fraud update.
More from Pay.UK
Payment Systems Regulator
LINK
The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has extended Specific Direction 8 (SD 8) which requires LINK to do all it can to fulfil its commitment to maintain the broad geographic spread of free-to-use (FTU) ATMs. SD 8 was due to end on 2 January 2022. However, the extended SD 8a, will remain in place until the end of March 2022, or until it is varied or revoked.
Access to interbank payment systems continues to grow
The PSR’s two-year report on access and governance shows trends over 2019-20
The rate of new payment service providers joining payment systems slowed down over 2019-20, but there continues to be interest in joining an interbank payment system
New indirect access providers (IAPs)are offering different products to the established big players.
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