The UK’s Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee assigned to oversee the national adoption of Open Banking has commented on the significant progress made towards all established goals.
In its latest update, the committee expressed satisfaction by pointing out that the UK is ready to move to the next phase of its journey to retain its global Open Banking leadership status.
The update follows the committee’s previous report published back in April where a roadmap of 29 actions was set to progress Open Banking in a three-phased delivery approach over the next two-and-a-half years.
In addition to the update, the committee, co-chaired by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) and the FCA, also published a response to progress made by the working group responsible for the Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) rollout blueprint.
The blueprint itself recommends that regulated utilities, financial services and the central and local government incorporate non-sweeping VRPs into their infrastructure as the first step in popularising the technology and driving Open Banking payments forward.
What’s more, the PSR has opened consultations until 5 February 2024 to discuss the matter of faster account-to-account transactions more closely with relevant stakeholders.
The Committee is now asking Pay.UK and Open Banking Limited to consider chairing implementation groups on the delivery of the appropriate functional enhancements and dispute mechanisms ahead of next year’s Q3 non-sweeping VRP introduction.
Pay.UK, which operates the UK’s interbank payment systems including BACS, Faster Payments and the cheque system, will play a key role in for new regime.
A Pay.UK spokesperson said: “We welcome the publication of the PSR’s finalised legal instruments for the APP reimbursement regime which place requirements on payment service providers to reimburse victims of APP fraud.
“We are playing our part, as directed by the PSR, in implementing the regime next year. We will continue our engagement with industry, regulators, and other stakeholders, includes sharing our latest implementation plans as soon as possible.”
A joint statement was issued by Chris Hemsley, Managing Director of the PSR, and Sheldon Mills, Executive Director of Consumers and Competition at the FCA, who said:
“It’s really encouraging to see such strong growth of Open Banking in the UK and how much progress has been made since April. The whole Open Banking ecosystem has worked collaboratively to deliver this progress.
“We now expect to see consumers and businesses starting to benefit from new and innovative ways of managing and making payments on a wider scale.”
