UK releases strategy for updating retail payments infrastructure

UK regulators say changes to payments infrastructure should go beyond a like-for-like upgrade. According to a new strategy, the next generation of retail payments infrastructure in the UK should allow different forms of digital money to coexist and prioritise enabling account-to-account payments at point of sale. Delivering the strategy will take several years.

New strategy for UK payments infrastructure

The Payments Vision Delivery Committee has published its strategy to guide the development of future UK retail payments infrastructure. This follows the Government’s National Payments Vision which was released last year and an update from this summer's Leeds Reforms.

The strategy, published on 7 November 2025, sets the following five high-level strategic outcomes:

Outcome 1: Consumers and businesses have a greater choice of innovative and cost-effective payment options that meet their needs.

Infrastructure must:

• Support account to account payments at point of sale e.g. through Open Banking
• Improve existing payment use cases and facilitate new ones e.g. through tokenisation
• Reduce barriers to cross-border payments e.g. through standardised messaging formats and support for stablecoin payments
• Be “inclusive by design” e.g. by enabling services for consumers with specific needs or vulnerabilities
• Enable modular development and overlay services

Outcome 2: Payments operate seamlessly as part of a diverse multi-money ecosystem, with interoperability between new and existing forms of digital money.

Infrastructure must:

• Support new forms of digital money and payments, including tokenised deposits and stablecoins
• Facilitate interoperability across different types of digital money

The Committee expects the Retail Payments Infrastructure Board to explore new “core interoperability” infrastructure which would enable connection across different forms of digital money. This includes assessing risks and benefits e.g. in relation to the fragmentation of core infrastructure and the potential impact on competition and innovation.

Outcome 3: Consumers and businesses can trust that their payments are protected from fraud and wider financial crime.

Infrastructure must:

• Enable prevention, detection and resolution of financial crime by design e.g. through programmable payments
• Enable robust customer authentication mechanisms
• Enable appropriate consumer protection across payment methods
• Provide secure data access and sharing

Outcome 4: Participant firms have fair, transparent and non-discriminatory access to the infrastructure – maximising competition and scope for innovation across the payments ecosystem.

Infrastructure must:

• Support a range of commercially viable business models
• Provide easier access to payments service providers and other firms
• Have a transparent, fair and predictable pricing methodology and governance framework

Outcome 5: The payments ecosystem is operationally and financially resilient.

Infrastructure must:

• Deliver reliability, resilience and security at scale, both during the transition to the new infrastructure and in the steady state
• Include the highest levels of protection from cyber and wider threats
• Employ a funding model that enables ongoing investment in the infrastructure
• Have long-term financial resilience and economic viability with an appropriate approach to cost control
• Continue to facilitate final settlement in central bank money for payments between customers of different money issuers

Background

The UK Government established the Payments Vision Delivery Committee to deliver its National Payments Vision. The Committee comprises the Financial Conduct Authority and Payment Systems Regulator (soon to be consolidated into the FCA), the Bank of England and HM Treasury. The Committee's strategy builds on three pillars of the National Payments Vision i.e. innovation, competition and security.

The Bank of England has convened the Retail Payments Infrastructure Board to lead design and delivery oversight of the renewed retail payments infrastructure. The Board is chaired by the Bank and includes representation from the payments industry.