The UK Government is conducting a regulatory review of the UK payments landscape “in light of rapid technology developments.”
In a call for evidence launched yesterday, HM Treasury is seeking views on a number of areas including the extent to which the government’s objective that UK payments networks operate for the benefit of end users has been met, and the extent to which the government’s objective for UK payment systems that are “stable, reliable and efficient” has been met.
The government is also keen to understand whether regulation needs to evolve further “to keep pace” with developments across the UK payments landscape.
The review refers to new payment services and “changes to the payments chain” that “could bring significant benefits for end users, including increasing choice, lowering costs and improving security and convenience”.
But the document says that these changes “could also bring risks if the end user does not understand the protections that apply, activities fall outside of regulation, or an activity is insufficiently resilient”.
The consultation also asks to what extent the government’s objective to “facilitate competition by permitting open access to participants or potential participants on reasonable commercial terms” has been met, whether there are “further barriers preventing access” and what regulators, industry and government should do “in order to remove these barriers”.
The document can be viewed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/904140/2020_template_PLR_CfE_27072020_final.pdf
HM Treasury is inviting responses until 20 October 2020. The call for evidence is particularly relevant to e-money and payment institutions and fintech payment firms.
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