The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published a consultation on a draft direction that would require Visa and Mastercard to provide detailed reporting on the financial performance of their UK card operations.
The proposed regulatory reporting remedy forms part of the PSR’s wider ongoing review into card scheme and processing fees, which has identified concerns around rising merchant payment costs, weak competitive pressure, increasing scheme profitability and insufficient transparency over how fees are set and charged.
As part of that review, the PSR said it had found evidence consistent with profit margins being higher than would typically be expected in a competitive market. The Regulatory Financial Reporting (RFR) remedy sits alongside two other proposed measures already under consideration by the PSR: Information, Transparency and Complexity (ITC) requirements, and new Pricing Governance obligations intended to strengthen oversight of fee-setting practices.
Under the RFR remedy, Mastercard and Visa would be required to submit annual profit and loss accounts for their UK card operations, including detailed breakdowns across products, services and customer groups. The schemes would also need to provide supporting contextual information explaining financial performance, pricing approaches, cost allocation methodologies and material business changes.
The PSR says the proposals are intended to provide more robust and reliable data to help assess the profitability of the schemes’ UK operations over time, improve ongoing supervision and determine whether scheme and processing fees are delivering good outcomes for businesses and consumers.
The PSR has also published draft Regulatory Accounting Guidelines designed to standardise how the information is prepared and submitted.
The PSR says it has refined the initial proposals following engagement with the schemes and is seeking a proportionate approach focused specifically on the information necessary to assess market outcomes. Certain previously considered requirements, including broader balance sheet reporting, have not been taken forward at this stage.
The PSR say that the expectation is that greater transparency will help them to determine whether further intervention may be required in future. We have long advocated for price caps and direct pricing interventions.
The consultation on the draft reporting direction and Regulatory Accounting Guidelines closes on 3 July 2026. The PSR has also confirmed that final decisions on its Information, Transparency and Complexity and Pricing Governance remedies are expected later this summer.
We will assess how the proposed direction aligns with the asks we made in response to the initial consultation and work with members to draft a response ahead of the deadline.
