UK publishes payments blueprint until 2028 27 February 2026UK Reporter: Tahlia Kraefft
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In the UK, a new Payment Forward Plan has been unveiled outlining a three-year roadmap for the development of the nation’s payment framework.
The Payment Vision Delivery Committee — composed of HM Treasury, the Bank of England (BoE), the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Payment Systems Regulator — have published the plan to give clarity on what is coming and when, allowing firms to plan and foster innovation in the private sector.
The plan details initiatives across wholesale and retail payments that government and public authorities are implementing including how initiatives each contribute to the meeting of the National Payment Vision ambitions.
The document also responds to findings from the 2023 ‘Future of Payments Review’ on payments regulatory congestion, including the planned consolidation of the Payments Systems Regulator (PSR) within the FCA.
The proposed consolidation of the PSR into the FCA is a key component of the roadmap, which the committee envisions will streamline the regulatory environment for firms and stakeholders.
The plan also outlines a wholesale review of assimilated payments legislation, including the Payment Services Regulations and e-money regulation.
The review will assess how UK frameworks support tokenised payments such as stablecoin and tokenised payments, where the strong customer authentication regime needs modernising, and if regulatory adjustments are required to facilitate emerging forms of agentic AI payments.
The Payments Forward Plan outlines coordination between the BoE and FCA on dual regulation for systemic issuers, and reaffirms stablecoins role as part of mainstream payments infrastructure.
The plan also sets out its intentions to redesign the underlying infrastructure across wholesale and retail and discusses efforts towards anti-money laundering reform and data sharing enhancements.
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