The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a consultation paper (CP26/38) consulting on changes to its Financial Crime Guide to reflect recent supervisory findings and developments in financial crime risks. The FCA proposes updates to areas covering: (i) fraud, including authorised push payment fraud and money mules; (ii) cryptoassets, ahead of the new regulatory regime coming into full effect on 25 October 2027; (iii) financial and trade sanctions; (iv) proliferation financing; (v) data security, including to address emerging risks associated with AI, synthetic identity fraud and digital assets; (vi) financial crime systems and controls; (vii) money laundering and terrorist financing; and (viii) other consequential changes.

The proposed updates are intended to clarify and update existing guidance rather than introduce new requirements and include refreshed self-assessment questions and examples of good and poor practice. The deadline for responses is 24 December, after which the FCA intends to publish its feedback and the final amended guide in a policy statement. On future plans, the FCA is exploring more flexible ways to provide financial crime guidance, focused on emerging risks and priority areas. This could include question-and-answer sessions and standalone guidance without prior consultation where it is not required. The guidance would then be consolidated within the Financial Crime Guide at a future date.

The Council of the EU has published its first reading position (dated 21 October) with a view to the adoption of the proposed revised Payment Services Directive (PSD3) and the new Payment Services Regulation (PSR), collectively known as "the Payment Services Package". The legislative package aims to modernise the EU's regulatory framework for payment services, building on the foundations of the current framework under Directive (EU) 2015/2366 (known as PSD2) to enhance consumer protection, strengthen fraud prevention and improve the functioning of open banking. It also seeks to address the pending challenges in the context of the impact and application of PSD2 in the internal market and adapt it to align with new market developments.

The Council's position follows the final compromise texts published in April, which reflected the provisional political agreement reached with the European Parliament (EP) in November 2025. The EP must now approve the Council's position at second reading. In its draft statement of reasons, also dated 21 October, the Council notes that the chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs indicated that she would recommend that Parliament accept the position, subject to legal-linguistic verification, provided it reflects the agreed overall provisional agreement.

The UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published its policy statement PS26/2, confirming its decision to remove the expiry date from its Specific Direction 17 (SD17). SD17 requires most payment service providers (PSPs) to provide the confirmation of payee (CoP) service, which helps to prevent misdirected payments and reduce certain types of authorised push payment fraud by checking whether the name on a payee's account matches the details provided by the payer. SD17 was due to expire on 1 November but will now remain in force unless varied or revoked. This addresses the potential risk that CoP coverage could weaken over time as PSPs may stop using it and new PSPs might not adopt it.

The PSR will review the requirement to provide CoP in five years' time, or sooner if significant developments affecting CoP or the wider payments landscape warrant it. It will also consider the case for expanding CoP requirements to a wider group of PSPs, to include those that currently provide CoP voluntarily. The PSR will engage with these firms to test the potential impacts identified through the July consultation, including incremental governance, compliance and legal costs, before deciding whether to consult on any future proposal. The scope of SD17 therefore remains unchanged at this stage. The PSR published the updated version of SD17 (SD17a) together with a tracked changes version, alongside its policy statement. 

The UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published a consultation paper on proposals to simplify the regulatory framework for access to payment systems. The PSR proposes to introduce a single access regime, while broadly maintaining existing access requirements. The proposals form part of the planned abolition of the PSR and aim to remove overlap and fragmentation across various regulatory requirements governing payment system access. The consultation assumes that HM Treasury will proceed with its plans to repeal the payment system access regime in the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs 2017) and that the PSR's functions, including its payment access powers, will be substantively transferred to the UK Financial Conduct Authority.

Specifically, the PSR proposes to:

• revise General Direction 2 (GD2), so that it becomes the primary regulatory measure to ensure access requirements are 'always on' and which will largely consolidate the requirements currently spread across the PSRs 2017 and GDs 2 and GD3, insofar as they apply to regulated payment systems. The revised GD2 would introduce a single test for direct and indirect access, while preserving the existing principles underpinning access. It would also extend the existing requirement to publish access requirements to all operators of payment systems designated under the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013
• revoke GD3 through the revised GD2, as GD3 would no longer be required once regulation 103 of the PSRs 2017 is revoked
• update the PSR's guidance on access requirements while maintaining its substance (subject to minor amendments).

The proposed revised GD2 and guidance are available on the PSR's webpage. The deadline for responses is 10 December. When determining next steps, the PSR will account for potential legislative changes, including under the Financial Services and Markets Bill and the potential revocation of regulations 103 and 104 of the PSRs 2017.

The BIS Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) have published a joint final report on financial market infrastructures' (FMIs) management of general business risks and general business losses. The report follows the November 2025 consultation and takes into account findings from the Level 3 assessment report on the implementation of PFMI Principle 15 (general business risk), which identified issues with FMIs' management of general business risks and the liquid net assets funded by equity held to cover potential losses. It sets out supplemental guidance to the PFMI for FMIs and relevant authorities, including in relation to the FMIs' recovery and orderly wind-down, specifically on:

• identifying, monitoring and managing general business risks
• determining the minimum amount of liquid net assets funded by equity to be held against potential general business losses
• governance and transparency in managing general business risks.

The guidance in the final report should be taken into account by FMIs and relevant authorities when developing their approach to meeting the PFMI.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published its response to the European Commission's targeted consultation on the review of the Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114) (MiCAR). The targeted consultation contained technical and legal questions on whether MiCAR remains fit for purpose in light of evolving market and international developments.

The response includes detailed answers and recommendations across the consultation's coverage of scope, asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens, crypto-asset service providers, and areas beyond the current scope of MiCAR. Of particular interest are the following:

• Harmonisation definitions: the EBA recommends that further harmonisation on the definitions of financial instrument and tokenised deposits is needed to prevent divergent national approaches. In the EBA's view, tokenised financial instruments should remain out of scope of MiCAR.
• Classification: the EBA recommends that further analysis be carried out as to classification of commodities-linked tokens as there is still a lack of clarity on regulatory status of such tokens and notes the risk of arbitrage in the absence of regulatory clarity in edge cases such as hybrid tokens, synthetic exposure, and "wrapped" tokens.
• Prudential requirements: the EBA response requests clarification as to the application of requirements to entities which are both issuers and crypto-asset service providers and improvements to own funds requirements, among other recommendations in relation to alignment and calibration. The EBA also suggests reducing the deposit requirement for e-money token reserve assets.
• Crisis management: the EBA suggests extending the toolkit to non-bank issuers and further mechanisms to better coordinate recovery and redemption planning.
• Lending - the EBA recommends regulating crypto-asset lending, including activities linked to decentralised finance, in view of the risks posed to consumers.
• Third-country multi-issuer stablecoin schemes: the EBA recommends a dedicated regulatory and supervisory regime to mitigate the significant risks posed by these schemes.

The EBA also provides feedback in relation to group supervision, reporting, and the interplay between MiCAR and other payment services regulation.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published findings from a multi-firm review on money mule activity (a form of money laundering in which a person transfers or receives criminal funds on behalf of others) and the cashing out of fraud proceeds. The review drew on a survey of 35 firms and analysis by an industry working group of 22 firms.

Key findings include:

• Retail banks accounted for most transactions passing through mule accounts, whereas other firms experienced lower volumes but higher-value transactions.
• Card payments were the most common cash-out method, as they can resemble legitimate consumer spending and are a versatile route for dispersing and monetising fraud proceeds.
• International and crypto cash-out methods were typically higher in value, showing that mule activity was not confined to UK payment flows.
• Repeat mule accounts suggest organised criminal infrastructure rather than an isolated or opportunistic misuse, as some accounts had been used multiple times for mule activity before firms shut them down, and there were accounts across multiple scam and fraud types.

The FCA expects firms to review their controls for detecting, preventing and disrupting money mule activity and to strengthen them where necessary. Firms should consider indicators beyond the initial receiving account, including linked accounts, payment characteristics and the broader transaction context. The FCA also highlights the importance of information-sharing, including through the provisions available under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, and is working with the National Economic Crime Centre to issue a further alert providing additional details of the working group's findings.

The Bank of England (BoE) has published a consultation paper on its proposed supervisory fees regime for recognised payment systems and specified service providers for the 2026/27 fee year. The BoE proposes increasing fees to reflect rising supervision costs, including greater focus on operational resilience and payments policy development. It is consulting on fee levels both under the current statutory fee cap (GBP760,000 per firm) and a proposed higher cap (GBP1.7 million) currently being consulted on by HM Treasury (HMT) earlier this year. The consultation also reflects the introduction of a new third impact category for less systemic payment systems, intended to support innovation through lower, proportionate fees.

Subject to the outcome of HMT's consultation and parliamentary approval of any proposed regulations, the revised fee regime would also apply to digital settlement asset service providers once they fall within scope of the BoE's supervisory remit. The deadline for responses to the BoE consultation is 22 October. The final fee will be confirmed in the fee policy statement issued once HMT has completed its process, including details of any transitional pro-rating if the fee cap is increased during the fee year. The proposals are currently expected to be implemented in Q4 of the 2026/27 fee year.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published findings from its review of how payments and e-money firms are supporting consumers in vulnerable circumstances under the consumer duty. The review assessed firms' approaches to identifying vulnerability, providing tailored support and monitoring customer outcomes. The FCA found many examples of positive practice but also identified specific areas for improvement, including:

• Some firms identified very few or no customers in vulnerable circumstances, despite having customer bases where characteristics of vulnerability may reasonably be expected.
• There was limited testing or assurance to assess how effectively identification policies were being implemented in practice.
• Approaches on support arrangements were not always applied consistently across the customer journey, and some firms could not clearly evidence how vulnerability information translated into tailored support for customers.
• Communications relied primarily on standard formats, with limited tailoring for customers with different needs, and limited assessment on whether communications were understood and effective in practice.
• The frequency and quality of management information provided to senior management and boards could be improved. Boards at certain firms received limited insight beyond annual consumer duty reporting, and vulnerability data and outcomes information were not consistently recorded, reducing firms' ability to identify trends and take corrective action.
• Understanding the impact of distribution arrangements on consumer outcomes.

Firms are advised to consider these findings when assessing their own arrangements. The FCA will continue to engage with firms in this area and intervene where necessary.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its quarterly consultation paper No. 53 inviting feedback on proposed amendments to its Handbook across financial promotion rules, banking conduct of business requirements, the new cryptoasset regime, complaints reporting, money market fund (MMF) reporting and the consumer composite investment (CCI) rules.

Key proposals include:

• Amending the financial promotion rules applicable to fractional shares, by amending the readily realisable security definition to include fractional shares that meet specified conditions.
• Removing an expired reference to the British Bankers' Association/Building Societies Association Code of Conduct for the Advertising of Interest Bearing Accounts in BCOBS 2.3.9G and replacing the reference in BCOBS 2 Annex 1, Note 1, to the latest Annual Equivalent Rate practice note published by UK Finance and the Building Societies Association.
• Making deferral arrangements for parts of the new cryptoasset regime (effective 25 October 2027), including relating to the admission process of qualifying cryptoassets on UK qualifying cryptoasset trading platforms, the execution venue requirements on UK-authorised dealers and arrangers, and the execution policy requirement for these firms.
• Correcting complaints data reporting rules by removing a duplicate data point on claims management fee cap redress in the Consumer Credit Return and clarifying the Handbook Glossary definition of "firm" for the purposes of DISP 1.10 and DISP 1.10A to ensure that payment services and e-money firms are within scope of these requirements.
• Removing the reference in DISP to the two-stage complaints process for the Society of Lloyd's.
• Updating MMF reporting requirements to ensure a proportionate approach that allows for effective monitoring of financial stability risks and is integrated into wider funds reporting requirements.
• Making minor amendments to the CCI rules in the DISC and COBS sourcebooks following feedback to PS25/20.

The deadline for comments is 12 October, and the proposed amendments are set out in draft instruments contained in the appendices to the consultation.

HM Treasury has announced that the UK government intends to give the Bank of England (BoE) a new secondary objective to support innovation in payment systems and emerging forms of digital money. The secondary payments innovation objective will sit below the BoE's primary financial stability objective and is intended to ensure UK payments regulation keeps pace with technological change and create conditions for innovation. The BoE already has a secondary innovation objective when regulating central counterparties and central securities depositories, introduced through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023. This reform will extend the same approach to systemic payment systems, including those using digital settlement assets such as stablecoins.

Key features of the announcement include:

• The BoE will report annually to Parliament on how it is advancing the innovation objective.
• Financial stability will remain the BoE's primary objective; the new secondary objective will not require the BoE to support innovation where doing so would undermine financial stability.
• The government expects to implement the change through amendments to the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which will next be debated in the House of Lords on 7 and 9 September.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published the findings from its review of its early and high growth oversight pilot. Between July 2025 and March 2026, the FCA engaged with 15 firms across asset management, wealth management and payments as part of a high-growth pilot. This was to identify rapidly growing firms earlier and support them as they establish and evolve their business. The FCA assessed whether their governance, risk management and control frameworks were developing in line with their growth. The FCA has set out its findings, including examples of good and poor practice:

• Governance and senior management oversight—Firms with stronger arrangements ensured governance, risk management and control frameworks kept pace with business growth. They had clear board and committee structures, with defined roles and responsibilities, regular oversight of risk and compliance matters, and high-quality management information for better decision-making. However, in some firms, governance arrangements had not kept pace with business growth. Board and committee structures including the scope, frequency and format of meetings, were not always effective and some firms lacked sufficient independent challenge, with responsibilities concentrated among a small number of individuals.
• Risk management frameworks—Stronger firms had more mature risk management approaches. Some used risk-focused committees to review enterprise-wide risks and escalate issues to the board, supported by clear risk appetites and key risk indicators. However, some firms relied heavily on key individuals, with limited contingency, succession planning, or broader knowledge transfer arrangements. Some firms also failed to sufficiently consider whether their risk management resources remained appropriate for the scale and complexity of the business.
• Resourcing, capability and scalability—As their business evolved, stronger firms invested in capability by recruiting and training staff, and in scalability through improved technology. They also demonstrated forward-looking regulatory judgement, preparing early for upcoming policy changes and legal requirements. However, the FCA identified some weaknesses in firms' capability and control frameworks where business models or customer populations had evolved but internal policies and procedures had not.
• Systems, controls and management information—Stronger firms had proactive cyber and operational resilience arrangements. This included using recognised security standards, penetration testing, third-party oversight and structured governance over the use of emerging technologies such as AI. Weaknesses included insufficient conflict of interest arrangements and management information that had not been updated.
• Financial resilience—Stronger firms proactively monitored key financial risks, including liquidity and counterparty exposures. Some firms used stress testing to check that their cost base was resilient, and that they could remain viable during periods of stress while continuing to meet regulatory capital requirements. In order to improve, the FCA highlights that some firms need to strengthen their financial resilience planning. In particular, wind-down plans are not always current, practical or proportionate to the business.

The FCA has provided individual feedback to all firms involved in the pilot. The FCA encourages firms experiencing growth to consider these findings and assess whether their arrangements remain appropriate for their size, scale, complexity and risk profile. If they find gaps, firms should take timely and appropriate action.

The UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published consultation paper CP26/2 on proposed amendments to specific direction 17 (SD17), which underpins broad participation in the confirmation of payee (CoP) service. CoP helps prevent misdirected payments by checking whether the name on a payee's account matches the details provided by the payer. SD17 requires directed payment service providers (PSPs) to have systems capable of both sending and responding to CoP requests. The PSR considers CoP to be an important safeguard against misdirected payments and certain types of authorised push payment fraud. The consultation proposes removing SD17's current expiry date of 1 November 2026 so that the direction remains in force indefinitely. It also seeks views on expanding the scope of SD17 to bring all PSPs currently offering CoP, including those participating voluntarily, within the same regulatory framework. The PSR also published a draft version of the updated direction showing the proposed amendments. The deadline for responses is 20 August.

The UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published policy statement PS26/1 on two final specific directions in relation to: (i) information, transparency and complexity (ITC); and (ii) pricing governance. The directions are a consequence of the PSR's market review of card schemes and processing fees, which found (as set out in the PSR's final report) there to be weak competitive restraints, rising fees, and insufficient transparency around cost and pricing for acquirers and merchants.

In April 2025, the PSR consulted on potential remedies to address these findings, including proposed remedies in respect of (i) ITC, to ensure that acquirers and merchants have sufficient information to understand fees being charged; and (ii) pricing governance, to impose requirements in relation to pricing decisions including three pricing principles. The final directions confirm that certain changes have been made to the draft directions, which were consulted on in December 2025.

Key changes in relation to the ITC direction are:

• the PSR has increased the materiality threshold for certain requirements relating to new and modified fees from GBP100,000 (net revenues) to GBP250,000 (gross revenues);
• the PSR has refined the requirement to provide information for fee reconciliation (and in particular no longer requires transaction-level identifiers); and
• Other minor changes.

Key changes in relation to the pricing governance direction are:

• refinements to the compliance requirements for clarification, practicality and proportionality;
• increased materiality threshold to exclude acquirer fee decisions in relation to fees expected to generate less than GBP250,000 of total gross annual fee revenue; and
• other minor changes.

In terms of the implementation timeline, the ITC remedy has an implementation period of 12 months meaning schemes will have to comply from July 2027. The pricing governance direction requires schemes to implement the remedy to ensure fee decisions are compliant from November this year.

HM Treasury (HMT) has published a consultation on updating the Bank of England's (BoE) fee regime under Part 5 of the Banking Act 2009, for recognised payment systems. The proposals would align the regime with the BoE's expanded supervisory remit under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 by bringing digital settlement asset (DSA) service providers and related service providers within scope of the fee framework. This will allow the BoE to recover the costs of supervising these entities once they are recognised by HMT.

The consultation also proposes increasing the annual supervision fee cap from GBP760,000 to GBP1.7 million per in-scope provider, in any one year. In addition, the consultation proposes raising the cap on special project fees from GBP500,000 to GBP650,000, per in-scope system in any one year. The deadline for comments is 31 August.

The Wolfsberg Group has published guidance on the provision of banking services to non-bank payment service providers (PSPs). The guidance is intended to help banks identify, assess and manage the financial crime risks arising from relationships with non-bank PSPs, recognising the increasing complexity of payment chains and the growing role of such firms in the payments ecosystem. It sets out a risk-based framework covering common business relationships, associated financial crime risks, compliance obligations and risk management expectations.

The guidance emphasises the need to: (i) apply a risk-based approach to due diligence and monitor the risks presented by different non-bank PSP activities; (ii) ensure payment transparency through complete and accurate payment information; and (iii) maintain a thorough understanding of a PSP's business model, customer activities and financial crime controls.

HM Treasury (HMT) has published a consultation on modernising the UK's payment services and electronic money regulatory framework. Given the pace of innovation in new technologies, the government wants to ensure the existing framework under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs) and Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (EMRs) can facilitate new forms of payment safely and securely. The Cross Border Payments Regulation and the SEPA Regulation are also within scope of the reforms while the Interchange Fee Regulation 2015 and the Payment Card Interchange Fee Regulations 2015 are out of scope, reflecting ongoing work on card fees.

The consultation considers updates to the PSRs and EMRs, including the extent to which responsibility for setting firm-facing requirements should be delegated to the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Having found that strong customer authentication standards (SCA), while reducing fraud, created burdensome customer friction, the government has already committed to revoking the SCA-related authentication provisions in the PSRs so that the FCA can adopt more outcomes-based authentication rules. The consultation also sets out the government's approach to the long-term regulatory framework for open banking.

The deadline for responses is 6 October.

HM Treasury (HMT) has published the financial services AI adoption plan, setting out next steps to accelerate safe AI adoption and innovation in the sector. The plan describes the UK's existing regulatory framework as a major asset and strong foundation for AI adoption but identifies that the core challenge now is not the absence of regulatory support, but its accessibility, consistency and practical application across the sector. The priority is therefore to establish a clear, authoritative single source of cross-regulator guidance, enabling firms to navigate requirements confidently and scale adoption consistently.

The plan sets out ten recommendations to unlock near-term scaling, support consistent adoption and manage systemic risk and competitiveness. They include:

• A comprehensive review of the consumer, competition and wider impacts of financial guidance and advice-like outputs generated by general purpose large language models.
• Consistent consumer disclosure for AI-driven services.
• Voluntary AI incident and "near-miss" sharing across the UK financial sector.
• Exploring the development of a sector-wide financial services AI skills plan.
• Leveraging the HMT consultation on modernising payment services to establish a "trust framework" to support agentic payments protocol.

The plan also sets out broader considerations for the government to address cross-sector barriers that impact financial services, such as AI sovereignty and resilience.

HM Treasury (HMT) has published a report (the first of two) from the Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, Chris Woolard, together with its terms of reference. This first report sets out a framework for developing a tokenised UK wholesale financial markets system and the steps needed to implement the government's Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy. It reviews the current innovation landscape, examines key policy considerations, other jurisdictions' approaches, and the impacts of cross-border issuance and international interoperability.

It identifies immediate industry priorities and corresponding actions for HMT and the authorities to take, shaped by ten identified priorities to be driven over the next 12 months by the Digital Markets Champion Industry Taskforce ("the Taskforce"). To achieve this, the Taskforce will establish action groups across nine areas, with further details on appointments to follow by September. Views on the report are invited by 4 September.

The Payments Vision Delivery Committee (comprising HM Treasury, the Bank of England, the UK Financial Conduct Authority and the UK Payment Systems Regulator) has published an update on the future retail payments ecosystem to support the Retail Payments Infrastructure Board's consultation on the design of the UK's next-generation retail payments infrastructure. The update outlines a proposed framework for the roles and responsibilities of participants within the future ecosystem, including a central core infrastructure scheme and operator, the product-level arrangements governing specific payment journeys, and supporting commercial, governance and consumer protection frameworks. It emphasises that the future infrastructure should support innovation, competition, interoperability and broad access while maintaining operational resilience and effective safeguards against fraud, money laundering and other financial crime.

The UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has announced that its authorised push payment reimbursement policy is having a positive impact, according to the findings of an independent review. The findings show that payment fraud losses have fallen by GBP73 million per year, APP scam volumes have reduced by approximately 35,000 cases, reimbursement rates have increased from 54% to 65% overall (and to 97% for in-scope claims), and firms with historically higher fraud levels have made the most significant improvements.

The PSR noted that there is no evidence of market exit or significant moral hazard, although some inconsistency in implementation remains across firms. To address this, the PSR has published a roadmap setting out its next steps. The regulator will also consult, before the end of the year, on measures to improve the application of the policy and will continue to monitor evolving fraud risks, including by publishing data on the platforms used by fraudsters to target victims.

The Bank of England (BoE) and the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have published their joint approach document on the regulation of systemic stablecoin issuers. Under the regime, the FCA will regulate all UK-issued qualifying stablecoins and, in future, their use in payments. However, HM Treasury (HMT) may bring a stablecoin issuer within the joint regulatory framework of the BoE and the FCA by recognising the issuer as systemic. The consultation builds on the BoE's recent proposals in its June publication and the FCA's final stablecoin issuance rules in PS26/10.

For jointly regulated systemic stablecoin issuers, the regulators are splitting supervisory responsibilities across three key areas:

• Areas where the FCA is the lead authority, and where the FCA rules apply—examples include the consumer duty, conduct and the market abuse regime.
• Areas of overlapping responsibility, where both the FCA rules and the BoE's code of practice (which is currently still in draft) apply—examples include operational resilience, record keeping, and issuance, legal claim and redemption.
• Areas where the BoE is the lead authority, and where the BoE's code of practice applies—examples include backing assets, capital and reserve requirements, safeguarding, and failure arrangements. In the case of overlapping responsibilities, the regulators expect to be able to manage these with tools they have experience using, including coordination of supervision and escalation mechanisms.

Read more.

The Bank of England (BoE) has published the Retail Payments Infrastructure Board (RPIB) consultation on the design of the UK's future "next‑generation" retail payments infrastructure, building on the government's National Payments Vision and the Payments Vision Delivery Committee (PVDC) strategy.

The consultation focuses on the core clearing and messaging infrastructure needed for the design's blueprint and does not intend to prescribe user-facing products or services. The consultation is structured around three areas, each of which will be considered alongside each other: (i) the future payment journeys the infrastructure should enable and support, including new payment methods such as account-to-account payments at the point of sale and enhanced cross-border payments; (ii) the design principles that should guide its development; and (iii) the role of the core infrastructure within the wider payments ecosystem. The BoE notes that success will also depend on progress in two related areas: (i) ecosystem roles and responsibilities for participants; and (ii) the development of successful products and services, including priority use cases identified in the PVDC strategy (such as account-to-account payments at the point of sale).

The design process is intended to be closely coordinated with wider reforms by HM Treasury and the UK Financial Conduct Authority, to modernise payments regulation. The consultation also includes an indicative roadmap, setting out how design and implementation could be sequenced.

The BoE further highlights that the new infrastructure should support interoperability across different forms of digital money (including the potential future of the digital pound). The deadline for comments is 11 September. Feedback will help the RPIB identify areas where further analysis, testing or industry engagement is needed, including through new engagement forums. Thereafter, the RPIB will publish a summary of responses and outline next steps in the high-level design phase, which will be taken forward by the new delivery company later this year.

The Financial Action Task force (FATF) has launched a consultation on draft guidance to support the implementation of its revised Recommendation 16 (Wire transfers) on payment transparency. The Recommendation is commonly referred to as the "Travel Rule" and was updated in June 2025. The proposed guidance aims to reflect developments in the payments landscape and to strengthen the security of cross-border payments by increasing the transparency of information accompanying transfers and introducing measures to address fraud and errors. Feedback is sought on a range of issues, including:

• Detecting and preventing misdirected payments, including by leveraging the three options for alignment checks foreseen in the revised Standard.
• Implementation that supports financial inclusion, including in lower-capacity jurisdictions.
• How Recommendation 16 applies to newer payment methods, such as digital wallets and mobile money.
• Implementing Recommendation 16 and meeting data protection and privacy requirements together.

The deadline for responses is 21 August, with the final guidance intended to assist jurisdictions and firms in meeting the revised standards by the end of 2030. The full list of consultation questions is set out in the explanatory memorandum to the draft guidance.

The Bank of England (BoE) has published a final policy statement setting out its regulatory framework for sterling-denominated systemic stablecoins, alongside a consultation on the draft code of practice for issuers. This follows the November 2025 consultation.

Under the regime, which will be established through amendments made by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to the Banking Act 2009, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will regulate the issuance, custody and admission to trading of UK-issued qualifying stablecoins and, in due course, their use in payments, while systemic stablecoins recognised by HM Treasury will be regulated jointly by the BoE and the FCA.

Following consultation feedback, the BoE has made several changes to the final policy. Key changes include:

• Revising the backing asset composition from a 60/40 to a 70/30 split between short‑term UK government debt and unremunerated central bank deposits (overnight repo and reverse repo transactions using eligible government securities with a residual maturity of six months will be permitted).
• Replacing proposed holding limits with a temporary GBP40 billion issuance "guardrail", which the BoE considers significantly less complex to implement.

Read more.

The House of Lords (Financial Services Regulation) Committee has published a report following its inquiry into the growth and proposed regulation of stablecoins in the UK. Among other things, the report examines the Bank of England (BoE) and UK Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) proposed regulatory regimes for systemic and non systemic stablecoins and assesses whether they are measured and proportionate. The Committee finds that the UK is lagging behind the U.S. and EU in developing its regulatory framework and urges regulators to adhere to existing timelines to avoid delay.

While broadly supportive of the proposals, the report highlights aspects which require re-consideration. It notes there are several elements which diverge from international approaches, particularly proposals relating to unremunerated backing assets requirements, the stablecoin holding limits and the restrictions on commercial bank issuance. The report calls for: further BoE analysis on the impact of holding limits on high-value cases; greater clarity from HM Treasury (HMT) on how it will determine whether stablecoins are systemic; and re-consideration by the FCA of the proposed k-factor requirement for stablecoin issuers. It also notes HMT's intention to bring stablecoins into the payments regulatory perimeter but highlights the lack of detail on scope.

The Committee further calls on HMT and the UK regulators to assess whether existing legal frameworks adequately address risks from unhosted and unregulated wallets, and to be prepared to legislate where necessary. It urges the government and UK regulators to consider its recommendations on how the proposed regulations may need to be re-adjusted to bring certainty and confidence.

UK Payments Initiative Ltd (UKPI) has announced the launch of a new industry-led payment scheme designed to support scalable account‑to‑account payments using open banking. The scheme supports the ambitions set out in the UK government's National Payments Vision. It introduces a framework for variable recurring payments, enabling consumers to authorise recurring or flexible payments directly from their bank accounts without sharing card details or relying on traditional direct debit, within their own agreed limits. This gives consumers greater control over who can collect money, how much can be taken and how long that permission lasts.

The UKPI scheme establishes a common rulebook, commercial model and operational standards, developed collaboratively by UK banks and fintech firms. Initially, the payments will be available for use cases such as payments to government, utilities, charities and financial services. The framework incorporates consumer protection measures, including safeguards and dispute processes to support trust across participants. The rulebook has been finalised and the scheme is now moving into market rollout following successful live proving. The UK Financial Conduct Authority published a statement on the same day signalling its support for the UKPI's launch.

The UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published its consultation paper CP26/1 on proposals to require specific card schemes to report UK financial performance. The proposals stem from one of four remedies identified as possible ways to address the findings of the market review of card scheme and processing fees, which were published last year. Proposals in relation to two of the other remedies (the information, transparency and complexity remedy and the price governance remedy) have already been taken forward, while the fourth remedy is not being pursued. This consultation paper sets out the proposals to introduce the regulatory financial reporting remedy (which relates to publishing scheme information).

Read more.

The UK Financial Services Regulatory Initiatives Forum has published the tenth edition of the Regulatory Initiatives Grid, setting out the ongoing and upcoming initiatives impacting the UK financial services sector. The Grid provides an overview of the current state of play as opposed to launching new initiatives, and is also used to communicate timing updates on deliverables where relevant. The grid includes a multi-sector section which covers cross-cutting and omnibus topics such as sustainable finance and operational and financial resilience. There are further sector specific sections including in relation to: banking, credit and lending; payment services and cryptoassets; investment management; retail investment; and wholesale financial markets.

The grid includes a number of UK developments in relation to other items in this week's update, including those mentioned in the King's speech, and the prospective changes in the Financial Services and Markets Bill. Further information is detailed in those specific items covered this week. Separate press releases announcing the Grid have also been published by the UK Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England.

Readers are also invited to provide feedback on the Grid and its usefulness in enabling planning for regulatory initiatives and any suggested improvements.

The Financial Services and Markets Bill, first introduced in the King's speech as the "Enhancing Financial Services Bill", has had its first reading in the House of Lords. The text of the Bill was published with accompanying explanatory notes. It proposes significant amendments to primary legislation, including the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013, as part of the government's growth and competitiveness strategy for the financial services sector.

Key proposals include: (i) modernising the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and reforming the UK Financial Ombudsman Service; (ii) consolidating the regulatory framework with the abolition of the UK Payment Systems Regulator; (iii) improving the operational effectiveness of the UK Financial Conduct Authority and the UK Prudential Regulation Authority; (iv) creating a new 'provisional licences' authorisation regime; (v) amendments to the appointed representatives regime including a requirement for principals to have specific permission to act as principal; (vi) creating a framework for HM Treasury to establish overseas recognition regimes for any financial services activity; (vii) reducing the burden of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime including repealing rules on the senior manager statements of responsibilities and the certification regime; (viii) updating the statutory framework underpinning the ring-fencing regime; and (ix) reforming the supervision of anti-money laundering / counter-terrorism financing.

The Bank of England (BoE) has published a consultation paper setting out its proposed roadmap to extend RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours towards near 24x7 settlement. The paper confirms the previously announced early-morning extension of CHAPS from September 2027 and seeks industry views on the next phase of reforms. In particular, the BoE proposes a phased approach, initially introducing settlement on weekends (most likely Sundays) and certain UK bank holidays from 2029 at the earliest. This would be followed by a further extension of those settlement days from 2031 at the earliest, resulting in CHAPS settlement operating hours for 22 hours per day, Sunday to Friday. The BoE notes that these sequencing steps could be combined if consultation responses indicate sufficient demand.

The consultation outlines key operational, liquidity and financial stability considerations, including the need for changes to liquidity provision, staffing, and risk management frameworks. It also seeks feedback on sequencing, design choices and the long-term end-state, including potential expansion to 22x7 or near-continuous settlement. The deadline for responses is 10 August.

The King's speech was delivered to Parliament, setting out a number of legislative measures relevant to financial services and the wider economic regulatory framework. The speech is accompanied by briefing notes, which outline the legislation to be brought forward. In the context of financial services, one of the bills announced is the Enhancing Financial Services Bill.

Key measures under this include:

• Reforming the UK Financial Ombudsman Service, as confirmed by HM Treasury (HMT) in its March consultation response to modernise the financial redress system.
• Abolition of the UK Payment Systems Regulator and integration into the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as confirmed by HMT in its April consultation response.
• Reducing administrative burden in the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, as confirmed by HMT in its April consultation response.
• Enabling credit unions to expand, as confirmed by HMT in its March call for evidence response on reforms to the credit union framework.

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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a revised version of its payment services and electronic money approach document, which sets out the FCA's guidance on the provisions of the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs) and the Electronic Money Regulations 2011. The changes to the guidance: (i) reflect the new safeguarding rules for payment and electronic money institutions which came into force on 7 May. The FCA published a mark-up showing the proposed related amendments to its approach document in August 2025; and (ii) align the guidance with the new rules on terminating framework contracts, as set out in paragraph 8.98 of the revised approach document. The changes relate, among other things, to the minimum notice period for contract terminations where payment service providers may terminate a framework contract by giving at least 90 days' notice to the customer, subject to exceptions under the PSRs. The FCA has also updated its webpage on safeguarding requirements for payment and electronic money institutions to reflect the changes.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that from 11 May, cryptoasset firms preparing for the new UK cryptoasset regime will be able to request pre‑application meetings through the FCA's pre‑application support service (PASS). The meetings are free of charge and are intended to allow firms to discuss proposed business models and regulatory expectations with the FCA and to raise questions ahead of applying for authorisation or a variation of permission. Meetings will take place from July, before the authorisation gateway opens on 30 September. The new cryptoasset regulatory regime scheduled to commence on 25 October 2027. For further background on the regime, you may wish to watch our webinars which are available here.

The Council of the EU has published notes from its General Secretariat to the Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER), setting out the final compromise text for the proposed revised Payment Services Directive (PSD3) and Payment Services Regulation (PSR), collectively known as "the Payment Services Package". The legislative package aims to modernise the EU's regulatory framework for payment services, building on the foundations of PSD2 to enhance consumer protection, strengthen fraud prevention and improve the functioning of open banking. It also seeks to address the pending challenges in the context of the impact and application of PSD2 in the internal market and adapt it to align with new market developments.

The Council also published an "I" item note from its General Secretariat, suggesting that COREPER approves the text of the draft Directive and draft Regulation with a view to reaching an agreement at second reading with the European Parliament (EP). The Council and the EP agreed their respective negotiating positions on the legislative proposals in June 2025 and April 2024, which we cover in more detail in our blog post titled "European Council and Parliament reach provisional agreement on EU Payments Package". For more background on the proposed package, you may wish to read our article titled "Paving the way for the future of payments - The PSD III package is here: discover its key features".

HM Treasury has announced a package of reforms aimed at modernising the UK payments regulatory framework to support innovation while maintaining consumer protection. The government confirms that it will shortly consult on reforms which include:

• Integrating the regulation of payment services and electronic money into the UK's core financial services framework, creating a single regime covering both traditional and tokenised payments (including stablecoins and tokenised deposits).
• Regulating stablecoins used for payments under a new UK regulated activity, alongside legislation to reduce administrative burdens for stablecoin payment providers.
• Adapting payments regulation to address payments conducted by AI agents.
• Granting the FCA new powers to oversee the future development of open banking and commercial open banking payment schemes.
• Streamlining regulation by setting out the government's response to consolidating the UK Payments Systems Regulator within the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
• Appointing a Wholesale Digital Markets Champion to support the development of tokenised wholesale markets as part of the government's wholesale financial markets digital strategy.

HM Treasury (HMT) has published its response to its September 2025 consultation, confirming its intention to proceed with abolishing the UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) and consolidating its functions within the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), subject to primary legislation. While responses were broadly supportive of integration within the FCA's existing FSMA framework, the government is still considering different legislative design options and will reflect further on feedback before finalising the model.

Key points from the response include:

• The PSR's functions under assimilated payment services legislation will transfer to the FCA, including functions under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, the Payment Card Interchange Fee Regulations 2015 and the Payment Accounts Regulations 2015 (including oversight of the Current Account Switching Service), alongside retention of a designation regime for bringing payment systems into and out of scope of regulation.
• Transitional legislation will preserve existing PSR requirements, technical standards and guidance (including those relating to the authorised push payment scam reimbursement regime), with the FCA determining its regulatory approach under the new framework. These transferred functions may be reviewed as part of HMT's wider programme to modernise and future proof payment services and e money law, which it will set out in detail in due course.

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HM Treasury (HMT) has published the draft Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 and a policy note proposing targeted changes to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026. The draft statutory instrument (SI) seeks to address unintended consequences of the cryptoasset regime and support the interim use of UK‑issued qualifying stablecoins (UKQS) for payments ahead of wider payments services reforms announced in a related press release. The reforms are expected to bring UKQS payment services into the regulated payments perimeter.

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The Bank of England (BoE) has published a consultation paper setting out its proposed fees regime for the supervision of financial market infrastructures (FMIs) for 2026/27.

Key proposals include a 3.2% reduction in UK central counterparties (CCPs) fees (excluding rulebook costs) and a 7.7% increase in UK central securities depositories (CSDs) fees to reflect work on repealing and replacing UK CSDR. The BoE intends to work with the UK Financial Conduct Authority and HM Treasury (HMT) to publish a full roadmap later this year on the repeal and replacement of UK CSDR, including a permanent regime for digital securities settlement.

In addition, the BoE proposes to maintain the UK CCP rulebook development costs, keeping the 2026/27 recovery instalment at GBP1.5 million, with any excess costs to be recovered in 2027/28. Fees for non‑UK CCPs and CSDs would be broadly unchanged, with small reductions for certain categories.

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The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) have published a joint report setting out their findings of their level 2 assessment of the UK's implementation of the principles for financial market infrastructures (PFMI). These principles set expectations for the design and operation of key FMIs in order to enhance their safety and efficiency and, more broadly, limit systemic risk and foster transparency and financial stability. The report sets out the conclusions and recommendations of whether, and to what degree, the UK legal, regulatory and oversight frameworks applied to systemically important payment systems (PSs), central securities depositories (CSDs) and securities settlement systems (SSSs), as of 30 September 2023.

The report finds that the UK legal, regulatory and oversight frameworks for PSs are complete and consistent with all principles under the PFMI, while the UK legal, regulatory and oversight frameworks for CSDs and SSSs are complete and consistent in most aspects, with some areas for improvement where implementation was broadly or partly consistent or not consistent. For UK CSDs and SSSs that provide banking-type ancillary services, the framework was consistent with 15 principles, broadly consistent with five principles (that is, principles 9, 11, 15, 16 and 23) and not consistent with principle 10. For other UK CSDs and SSSs, additional gaps relating to principles 4 and 7 were found, where implementation was partly consistent.

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The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published a decision dated 1 April, harmonising how national competent authorities (NCAs) report data under the SEPA Regulation (EU) No 260/2012. Under Article 15(3) of the SEPA Regulation, payment service providers (PSPs) are required to report annually on charges for credit transfers and payment accounts, as well as the shares of transactions rejected due to EU sanctions. Under Article 15(4) of the SEPA Regulation, NCAs must currently share that information with both the European Commission (EC) and the EBA. To avoid double reporting, the decision provides that NCAs will now report this information only to the EBA, via a single reporting channel, on an annual basis by 9 October of each year. The EBA will then make this information available to the EC via its data collection ecosystem, the European Centralised Infrastructure of Data (EUCLID), as soon as possible after receiving it from the NCAs. The decision also clarifies that where NCAs already hold some of the required data, they are responsible for ensuring its accuracy and completeness, without re collecting it from PSPs. In addition, the Annex to the EBA's EUCLID Decision is amended to reflect this new reporting requirement. The decision takes effect immediately.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published its comprehensive payments strategy, setting out a consolidated, forward‑looking approach for the development of European payments across wholesale, business‑to‑business, retail and cross‑border use cases. The strategy has four strategic aims: (i) ensuring the effectiveness of monetary policy, financial stability and the smooth functioning of payment systems by maintaining the role of central bank money as the anchor of a two-tier monetary system; (ii) achieving strategic autonomy and increased resilience for European payments; (iii) fostering an integrated, competitive and innovative payments ecosystem; and (iv) supporting the international role of the euro.

These involve:

• Developing a European market for tokenised settlement assets by leveraging the innovative potential of tokenisation while maintaining central bank money as the anchor for settlement, complemented by private settlement assets. These private settlement assets include tokenised deposits and stablecoins that are EU-governed, euro-denominated and properly designed and regulated.
• Improving existing infrastructure and investing in distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based solutions for wholesale payments by continuing to support and invest in its RTGS settlement system T2 (including exploring the extension of its operating hours), while developing central bank money for the settlement of DLT-based wholesale payments and securities transactions through its Pontes and Appia initiatives.

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A Corrigendum to Regulation (EU) 2025/1355 of the European Central Bank on oversight requirements for systemically important payment systems, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Corrigendum makes a purely technical correction to recital 2, replacing a typographical error. The correction does not introduce any substantive changes to the regulatory framework or to the oversight requirements applicable to systemically important payment systems.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its annual work programme for 2026/27 setting out its planned activity for the second year of its five-year strategy. The programme is structured around the following four strategic priorities:

• Being a smarter regulator: to improve regulatory efficiency and proportionality, the FCA will continue to invest in digital, data and AI capabilities, reduce administrative burdens by simplifying rules and streamlining data returns (including removing three regular returns in April), and improve the authorisation process by further reducing authorisation timelines and continuing to report against new, shorter voluntary targets. In a press release published on the same day, the FCA announced it is developing a new internal AI-enabled authorisation tool, integrated into its existing systems. The FCA will also use generative AI to review documents received from firms, which, following successful testing, it will begin rolling out more widely across authorisations and supervision.

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The UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published its annual plan and budget, setting out its key aims, activities and costs for 2026/27. The PSR's work programme for the year ahead will embed many of the changes it set out last year. It will also maintain momentum on major, long-term initiatives while responding to new challenges. Over the next year, the PSR will focus on:

• Delivering the National Payments Vision: The PSR will oversee the delivery of critical payments infrastructure, working closely with the Bank of England, HM Treasury and the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) through the Payments Vision Delivery Committee.
• Continuing action to tackle authorised push payment fraud: This year, the PSR will publish the independent evaluation of the first year of its authorised push payment fraud reimbursement scheme and consider if it needs to take further action.
• Enhancing its approach to supervision and enforcement: The PSR will continue to strengthen its business model and align it with FCA practices. This will enhance the PSR's oversight of the firms it supervises.

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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its regulatory priorities report for the payments sector. These reports replace the FCA's previous portfolio letters and will now be published annually for each industry sector. The report is directed at firms authorised or registered under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and the Electronic Money Regulations 2011. In the report, the FCA sets out four key priority areas for the next 12 months:

• Preparing for the future to support effective competition, innovation and growth: The FCA will continue policy work on open banking, stablecoins, and modernising payments regulation. It will support industry in establishing a Future Entity for open banking. It will also support HM Treasury (HMT) in introducing legislation to grant the FCA powers to set new rules for the long-term open banking regulatory framework. The FCA will work with HMT to future-proof payments regulation, including consideration of whether changes to or the development of regulation is needed to support agentic AI payments. It will also work with the sector to consider how stablecoins and other tokenised payment instruments can be brought into regulated payments.

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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a revised version of its Payment Services and Electronic Money Approach Document, updating its guidance on exemptions from strong customer authentication (SCA), including the contactless payments exemption. Among other things, Chapter 20 of the Approach Document now states that:

• Payment service providers (PSPs) are allowed not to apply SCA at the point of sale where the payer initiates a contactless electronic payment transaction that has been reasonably identified by the payer's PSP as low risk. This exemption is subject to compliance with Article 2 of the SCA regulatory technical standards (SCA-RTS).
• In addition to the factors outlined in Article 2(2) of the SCA-RTS, the PSP may consider additional risk-based factors to help it identify whether a transaction is low risk, such as the payer's normal spending or behavioural pattern or their location.
• The PSP may also reasonably identify a transaction as low risk based on the value of the individual contactless electronic payment transaction, the cumulative value of previous contactless electronic payment transactions and/or the number of consecutive contactless electronic payment transactions since SCA was last applied. Whilst not required to do so, PSPs may place limits on the use of contactless payments to reflect these factors.

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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Bank of England (BoE) have published final policy statements setting out a co‑ordinated framework for operational incident and third‑party reporting. This follows consultations published in 2024.

The regulators are collectively replacing sector‑specific incident reporting regimes with a single, unified operational incident reporting framework. Under this, firms will make one reporting submission through FCA Connect, regardless of the regulators involved. Payment service providers (PSPs) will also now report serious operational incidents only through the new consolidated regime. Changes to the reporting process for PSPs are reflected in amendments to the Payment Services and Electronic Money Approach Document. The rules will apply from 18 March 2027.

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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its regulatory priorities report for the retail banking sector. These reports replace the FCA's previous portfolio letters and aim to provide a clearer and more consistent articulation of regulatory expectations.

In the report, the FCA notes that retail banking is undergoing significant change as customers use branches less and rely more on digital channels. Business models are also diversifying, with increased fintech activity and the continued development of open banking and new payment types.

The FCA sets out four priority areas for the next 12 months:

• Access to cash and essential banking services: As firms pursue digital first transformations, the FCA emphasises that firms must ensure these do not create foreseeable harm, particularly for customers with lower digital capability. Alternative services must be in place before any branch closures. The FCA will continue to monitor firms' approaches under its branch closures or conversions guidance and the consumer duty and will intervene where necessary.
• Good outcomes from products and services: Firms are expected to continue improving the data they use to monitor customer outcomes so they can identify where further action is needed. The FCA will take targeted action where it identifies poor outcomes, including poor value or issues affecting vulnerable customers.

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The Bank of England (BoE) has published a speech delivered by Andrew Bailey, Governor of the BoE and Chair of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) at the FSB Payments Summit on reforming cross‑border payments. Mr Bailey welcomes progress under the G20 cross‑border payments roadmap but stresses that implementation now needs to accelerate to meet the G20's 2027 targets. Looking ahead, he identifies cross‑border payments as a continuing strategic priority and sets out four areas of focus: (i) the development of jurisdictional and regional action plans to drive implementation of international standards, alongside a planned FSB review taking place in early 2027 of implementation of recommendations on data frameworks and bank and non‑bank regulation; (ii) further innovation and infrastructure upgrades, including deeper adoption of ISO 20022, extended RTGS operating hours, increased use of application programming interfaces and consideration of how digital payment innovations could support roadmap objectives; (iii) reducing regulatory compliance costs without diluting AML/CFT and other standards, including through greater cross‑jurisdictional consistency and the use of technology; and (iv) stronger commitment and coordinated action from the private sector, as well as some form of collective action, to move the dial on cross-border payments from the perspective of end users.