United Kingdom (and EU regulation)

HM Treasury Payment Services Regulations 2017 Review and Call for Evidence

On 13 January 2023, HM Treasury issued:

Payment Services Regulations Review and Call for Evidence. The review meets the government’s statutory requirement to review the Payments Services Regulations 2017 (the 2017 Regulations). In summary, the review finds that the 2017 Regulations have fostered a strong and competitive UK payments sector. However, the 2017 Regulations in themselves have not gone far enough in isolation, as evidenced in particular by the UK’s work to foster meaningful competition via open banking. The pace of market change has also made the UK heed broader developments in payments to ensure that regulation keeps pace with change, including, but not limited to, the emergence of crypto-assets. In light of market developments and the UK’s ability to now determine its own approach to payments regulation, there are certain areas where the regulatory framework for payments is potentially not working as well as it could. Therefore alongside the review the government is launching a call for evidence on how UK payments regulation should evolve. As part of the call for evidence the government is also seeking evidence on the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, cross border payments regulation, other areas of payments law covering specific issues which are not closely connected with the 2017 Regulations including the Interchange Fee Regulation and participation in the Single Euro Payments Area. The call for evidence closes on 7 April 2023.

Payment Card Interchange Fee Regulations Post Implementation Review. This post implementation review covers the Payment Card Interchange Fee Regulations 2015 (the 2015 Regulations). The Interchange Fee Regulations 2015 (IFR), which covers the substance of interchange fee policy and regulation, is not subject to this review. The 2015 Regulations principally designated the Payment Systems Regulator as the competent authority to monitor the IFR. The government assess that the policy objective of appointing an appropriate competent authority with powers to enforce the IFR has been achieved.