PSR publishes Annual Plan and Budget for 2020/2021

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published its annual plan and budget, which sets out its key aims and activities for the year 2020/21 alongside its expected costs.

The PSR acknowledges that, due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, it may have to adapt some of the activities set out in its plan, but says it will communicate any changes it makes as they happen. The plan makes it clear that the PSR aims to continue its work on opening up access to payment systems, promoting effective competition in the markets for payment systems and their services, and promoting users’ interests – particularly in enhancing fraud prevention and protection.

The PSR’s key projects for 2020/21 are:

• The New Payments Architecture (NPA) – working towards ensuring that the NPA delivers a resilient way of making digital payments that supports more competition and innovation, supporting payment services that benefit the people and organisations using them.
• Access to cash – working towards ensuring that people can continue to access and use cash from the ATM networks where they want or need to.  
• Card-acquiring market review – aiming to ensure the market for card-acquiring services works well, supported by effective competition.
• Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams and Confirmation of Payee – working towards seeing scams reduced, and ensuring that victims are protected.
• Competition and regulatory enforcement casework – working towards ensuring that payment systems and markets are more competitive and/or deliver better outcomes for users. This includes tackling anti-competitive conduct, so that there is a credible deterrence against such behaviour.
• Sector intelligence and analysis – enhancing the way it assesses developments in payments, to make sure it has the right insights at the right time to help it advance its objectives.
• Strategy setting – working towards making sure its stakeholders are clear on what its longer-term focus is, and effectively planning its work to support its long-term outcomes.
• Revised Powers and Procedure Guidance – ensuring stakeholders understand how the PSR works, how it decides whether to take any regulatory or enforcement action, the processes it follows, and what can be expected from it.