UK Financial Authorities to Improve Cooperation on National Payments Vision

Four financial authorities in the United Kingdom said they are working to improve their cooperation and will revise their agreement as the government pursues its National Payments Vision.

The Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) said this in a Friday (Dec. 20) press release announcing their annual review of the agreement, which outlines the framework of their cooperation on payment systems in the U.K.

The annual review is required by the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013, according to the release.

“Over the past year, we have taken steps to improve the sharing of expertise and data between our institutions,” the authorities said in the release. “We recognize that there is scope for further improvement in our cooperation, and we have committed to revise the [agreement] by Q2 of 2025 in line with the government’s National Payments Vision (NPV).”

The National Payments Vision was published in November and was accompanied by a joint remit letter to the FCA and PSR that included the government’s recommendations regarding U.K. payments, per the release.

In its announcement of the publication of the National Payments Vision, the government said it aims to support the payments sector in delivering economic growth.

The announcement said the sector includes some of the U.K.’s highest-growth businesses and that the National Payments Vision’s goal is to see the sector “deliver world-leading payments.”

The government’s recommendations to the FCA and the PSR concern payments regulation and include enhancing coordination to streamline the regulatory landscape, supporting the development of open banking, examining data-sharing initiatives to help prevent fraud across the financial services sector, and examining the requirements for the U.K.’s retail payments infrastructure.

In their Friday press release, the Bank of England, FCA, PRA and PSR said: “All four authorities recognize the importance of our continued cooperation and collaboration, particularly at this time of innovation and change in the payments sector.”

The announcement came as the FCA is seeking comment on proposed cryptocurrency regulations and on streamlining investor protection rules.