Emma RadmoreGenevieve Marjoribanks, head of policy at the PSR, says the PSR is looking at what consumer protections are available and whether they adequately protect those who use bank transfers to make payments. The PSR is starting a new piece of work to assess whether there need to be additional protections for FPS users.
Demand for real-time payments with instant funds transfer has grown significantly and has coincided with a boom in online and mobile banking while the use of FPS for goods and services purchase is still relatively low. But the PSR thinks Open Banking could change this as it has the potential to provide a competitive alternative to payments that traditionally use cards. The growth of PISPs in the market could make retail payments over FPS appealing. But established forms of retail payments have their own protections, and consumers will want to use methods with inbuilt protection.
The PSR has, of course, done significant work already on APP scams – specifically the CRM and the more recent implementation of COP.
It is now looking at:
- what benefits various types of protection could offer consumers;
- what role innovations like digital identity can play in identification of payers or authentication of payments;
- whether new measures to protect consumers are needed and, if so, should they be introduced by individual PSPs or should protections be inbuilt in FPS.