Regulator must expand on weak 5 Year Payment Strategy

The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published its proposed five-year strategy in June 2021, which was open for consultation until September.

Please log-in below to view a summary of the PSR Strategy and the final BRC response on behalf of the retail industry. 

In the absence of effective proposals in the Strategy to tackle longstanding anti-competitive practices in card payments, the BRC and other business trade bodies, have called for Parliamentary (Treasury Committee) intervention – for the Committee to assess the PSR and its proposed Strategy against its statutory objectives. 

Urgent action is needed to protect businesses and customers from soaring card costs, yet there is a conspicuous absence of any meaningful commitment to address current harms within card payments despite substantial and increasing evidence of excessive and ever-growing costs to users – including evidence gathered by the PSR itself. The Strategy document conflates present day harms, for which action is overdue, as risks to be considered at some point in the future. No measurable outcomes have been defined and no timeframe established within which the PSR will intervene in the coming 5 years if competitive outcomes continue not to be seen.

More generally, the Strategy lacks essential details required for the PSR to hold itself to account, or for others to do so. There is an absence of specific, measurable and time-limited objectives that would make it difficult to assess the PSR’s success in achieving good outcomes.