On 16 December 2025, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Commercial variable recurring payments – Update on delivery. The FCA has also published a new webpage Open banking: a year of progress which includes information on its strategic approach and Open Banking Limited has published API performance stats.
Variable recurring payments (VRPs), an open banking technology that allows users to securely authorise trusted third parties to manage recurring transactions, now account for 16% of open banking payments. The FCA is the lead regulator for open banking and has worked in close collaboration with the PSR, jointly working towards the launch of commercial VRPs.
In 2025, 31 firms from across the ecosystem came together to establish a new organisation, UK Payments Initiative (UKPI), to help expand VRPs into a series of new use cases. These ‘phase 1’ use cases include utility payments, financial services payments, and payments to local and central government. The FCA and PSR expect the first live payments under the UKPI scheme will take place in Q1 2026.
HM Treasury is expected to introduce legislation in 2026 that will grant the FCA new powers to set open banking rules, and the FCA intends to consult on new rules for the long-term regulatory framework before the end of the year. The framework will be the foundation for expanding commercial VRPs into e-commerce and wider use cases.