Payments Strategy Forum Will Have Outside Voice

The U.K. Payment Systems Regulator said Wednesday (July 15) that it has named Ruth Evans — a payments system industry outsider — to help steer discussions over the future direction of the payments technology within the country.

In an announcement Wednesday, the regulator said that Evans, who chairs The Authority for Television on Demand, will assume the chair of the Payments Strategy Forum later in July. That forum is geared toward fostering collaboration among payments industry participants.

Evans has also served on four regulatory boards, including the aforementioned television authority, the Bar Standards Board, Ofcom Consumer Panel and also the General Medical Councils Standards Committee. Evans, the regulator added, has also been active in a number of charities.

In tandem with the appointment of Evans to the forum role, the Payment Systems Regulator also has issued an industry-wide call to find 20 people with senior-level positions to sit on the forum’s panel. In a statement the body said that those individuals would have the “ability to shape and make decisions on strategy or policy within their organizations and the sector more broadly.”

The forum has leeway to meet up to six times annually and also sets up working groups that seek to discuss and research payment industry initiatives running across analysis and design. There is also an ongoing reporting process that covers the industry in general, the Payment Systems Regulator said Wednesday.

Initial and near-term areas for further exploration, the regulatory body noted in the statement, include ongoing processes to prioritize and develop new initiatives within account switching and also within account number portability.

Hannah Nixon, who is managing director of the Payment Systems Regulator, said that the forum represents a “melting pot” wherein “all corners of the payments industry can come together and have an equal say, working as one body to boost innovation.”

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