The New Payment Systems Operator (NPSO) has announced that it has taken over responsibility for the operation of Bacs and Faster Payments. The completion of this transaction represents a significant milestone for the payments industry and is the latest step in a series of developments bringing wholesale change to UK payments.

The NPSO set up the Payments Strategy Forum back in 2015 to deliver collaborative innovation and tackle long-standing problems in the payments industry. The completion of this transaction is a significant occasion for several reasons: 

• It marks the delivery of one of the Forum’s key proposals in the national payments strategy and closely aligns with our work to drive innovation and competition in the payments market
• It puts the NPSO in a good position to progress the competitive procurement of the central infrastructure on the new payments architecture (NPA), which has been kicked off by the Faster Payments Scheme, as well as the next phase of the NPA’s development and delivery
• It reforms the governance structure of these payment system operators based on the Payment Systems Operator Delivery Group’s recommendations for a more independent Board. There will be no Member-appointed Directors on the Board and the end-user and stakeholder community will be appropriately represented in the NPSO’s governance structure.

“We’ve worked closely with the Bank of England to oversee a smooth transition to the NPSO based on the Payment Systems Operator Delivery Group’s recommendations. From this point our powers will apply to NPSO Ltd as the operator of Bacs and Faster Payments,” said a PSR statement.

We now await the NPSO’s acquisition of the cheque and image clearing systems over the next few months.