Next-Generation UK Retail Payments Infrastructure: What the RPIB Consultation Means for PSPs and Direct Participants

ByOfficer

Last updated: June 2026

The pipes that move most of your domestic sterling payments are about to be redesigned, and the window to influence that design closes on 11 September 2026. In June 2026 the Retail Payments Infrastructure Board, an industry advisory board chaired by the Bank of England, opened a consultation on the design of the future UK retail payments infrastructure. If your firm sends Faster Payments, submits Bacs files, or reaches the rails through a sponsor bank, the successor architecture will land on your systems, your scheme rules, and your reporting. This is where the requirements get written.

The consultation changes no live obligation today. It asks how the next-generation rails should work, which payment journeys they should support, and which design choices matter most. The answers feed a “blueprint” that an industry-owned Delivery Company will later procure and build. The cheapest time to shape an infrastructure you will run for the next two decades is while it is still a set of questions. Firms that sit out the design phase inherit the choices made by the firms that showed up.

Related reading: our guide to the UK open banking and commercial variable recurring payments initiative.

What the RPIB consultation actually asks

The Retail Payments Infrastructure Board is seeking views on the payment journeys, key design choices, and priorities for the next-generation UK retail payments infrastructure. According to the Bank of England, the new infrastructure should support today’s core payment journeys while also enabling account-to-account use at the point of sale, improved domestic and cross-border journeys, and programmable payments. The consultation closes on 11 September 2026.

Here is the most common misread already circulating: that this is a procurement, a build, or a final decision. It is a design consultation. The RPIB translates the National Payments Vision objectives into a design direction. A Design Authority then turns that into a high-level design, requirements, and the blueprint, and only after that does the Delivery Company procure and fund the infrastructure. Responding now influences the requirements, not the contract.

The second misread is that this is only for the large clearing banks. The RPIB brings together banks, building societies, payment service providers, fintechs, and merchants, supported by structured forums such as the Payment End User Forum. Smaller PSPs and indirect participants have a route in, and the choices on access models affect them most.

The governance stack: PVDC, RPIB, Design Authority, Delivery Company

The Payments Vision Delivery Committee (PVDC) sets the strategy. It is chaired by HM Treasury and brings together the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Payment Systems Regulator. In November 2025 the PVDC published its Strategy for Future Retail Payments Infrastructure, setting the strategic outcomes the renewal should deliver. The RPIB, chaired by the Bank of England, drives the design. The Design Authority converts that direction into the technical blueprint. The industry-owned Delivery Company procures and funds the infrastructure once the blueprint exists. Pay.UK keeps operating the systems that run today.

This four-layer split answers the previous model directly. The earlier New Payments Architecture programme, run under Pay.UK since 2017, drew criticism for slow progress, and the National Payments Vision concluded that a more agile and flexible approach to the United Kingdom’s infrastructure needs was required. The new model puts the central bank in the design chair and moves procurement to a dedicated industry company.

Where Faster Payments and Bacs sit during the transition

The single most important operational fact for the next reporting cycle is that nothing switches off. Pay.UK continues to operate the existing retail interbank payment systems, Faster Payments and Bacs, and remains responsible for their safe and resilient running through the transition. The consultation creates no new return, no new submission, and no change to existing scheme participation requirements.

Pay.UK continues to operate the existing rails throughout the design phase; any migration to successor infrastructure will be sequenced later through the Delivery Company once the blueprint is agreed. Treat current Faster Payments and Bacs obligations as fully live and unchanged.

Design choices that shape UK retail payments infrastructure

Messaging standards are central, but the consultation does not prescribe a final message standard. It treats common technical standards and shared payment-data messaging standards as design choices for further analysis and engagement, and gives ISO 20022 message formats as an example of the type of common standard that could support interoperability. The practical work for PSPs is to assess current message data quality, identify gaps in structured payment information, and be ready to respond on the data standards that should sit in the future core infrastructure.

Payment journeys are the second axis. The design aims to support account-to-account payments at the point of sale, today reliant on open banking and card rails, alongside improved cross-border journeys and programmable functionality. For PSPs that have invested in open banking payment initiation, the question is whether the new infrastructure complements or substitutes the route you already operate.

Access and resilience are the third. The infrastructure is meant to provide a secure foundation while supporting monetary and financial stability. The choices on participation models, settlement, and failover determine whether a smaller PSP connects directly or stays dependent on a sponsor bank. Access models, direct and indirect participation, are a standard review point in infrastructure redesign, and the RPIB consultation addresses them explicitly.

What PSPs and direct participants should do now

When a consultation is framed as a “design” rather than a rulebook, I check first for any change to a live obligation, and there is none here yet. The work this quarter is engagement, not remediation.

Read the consultation against your own connectivity. A direct participant in Faster Payments weighs the messaging and settlement choices differently from an e-money firm reaching the rails through a sponsor. Map which proposed journeys touch your product roadmap, and respond on those rather than filing a generic comment.

The frequent mistake is to treat the future infrastructure as an IT project for 2028 and skip the 2026 consultation. The requirements your future build must meet are being written now. Sitting out the design phase does not pause the obligation later; it removes your influence over its shape. For a cross-border comparison, see the European approach in our SEPA Instant Payments Regulation guide.

The regulatory backdrop firms should not ignore

This consultation is the design step of the National Payments Vision, which HM Treasury published in November 2024 and which led to the PVDC operating model confirmed in July 2025.

The supervisory architecture above the infrastructure is shifting too. HM Treasury confirmed in April 2026 its intention to consolidate the Payment Systems Regulator into the Financial Conduct Authority, subject to primary legislation, following its September 2025 consultation. The PSR still exists and still sits on the PVDC, but firms planning multi-year roadmaps should assume the regulatory contact point for payment systems is moving. Fraud, scheme rules, and confirmation-of-payee controls sit within that perimeter, which is why the design phase and the regulatory consolidation read best together. On the fraud-prevention overlay, see our coverage of the EPC Verification of Payee scheme, and on UK financial-market-infrastructure oversight, the Bank of England and FCA FMI memorandum of understanding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the RPIB consultation create any new reporting obligation for my firm?

No. It seeks views on the design of future infrastructure. It introduces no new return, submission, or change to existing Faster Payments or Bacs scheme participation. Pay.UK continues to operate Faster Payments and Bacs under current scheme arrangements; future migration depends on outcomes of any approved infrastructure redesign.

When does the consultation close?

The Retail Payments Infrastructure Board’s consultation on the design of the future UK retail payments infrastructure closes on 11 September 2026, according to the Bank of England.

Who is the RPIB, and who chairs it?

The Retail Payments Infrastructure Board is an industry advisory board chaired by the Bank of England, bringing together banks, building societies, payment service providers, fintechs, and merchants, supported by structured engagement forums.

Is Faster Payments being switched off?

Not now. Pay.UK remains responsible for operating Faster Payments and Bacs and for their safe and resilient running. Any migration to successor infrastructure would be sequenced later through the industry-owned Delivery Company once a blueprint is agreed.

What is the difference between the RPIB, the Design Authority, and the Delivery Company?

The RPIB sets the design direction. The Design Authority turns it into a high-level design, requirements, and blueprint. The industry-owned Delivery Company then procures and funds the infrastructure. The Payments Vision Delivery Committee, chaired by HM Treasury, sits above all three and sets the strategy.

How does the planned PSR consolidation into the FCA affect this?

HM Treasury confirmed in April 2026 its intention to consolidate the Payment Systems Regulator into the FCA, subject to legislation. The PSR still exists and still sits on the Payments Vision Delivery Committee. Firms should assume the regulatory contact point for payment systems is moving over the medium term, while current PSR rules remain in force until any transfer is legislated.

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Key Takeaways

  • The RPIB, chaired by the Bank of England, opened its consultation on the design of next-generation UK retail payments infrastructure in June 2026; responses are due by 11 September 2026.
  • The consultation creates no new reporting obligation. Pay.UK continues to operate Faster Payments and Bacs under current scheme arrangements during the design phase.
  • The output is a design “blueprint” that an industry-owned Delivery Company will later procure and build.
  • Governance runs in four layers: the PVDC (strategy), the RPIB (design direction), the Design Authority (technical blueprint), and the Delivery Company (procurement and funding).
  • Design choices on messaging standards (including ISO 20022 as an example), account-to-account at the point of sale, cross-border journeys, and access models will shape future connectivity and data requirements.
  • HM Treasury confirmed in April 2026 its intention to consolidate the Payment Systems Regulator into the FCA, subject to legislation, so the regulatory contact point for payment systems is shifting.

Sources and References

  • Bank of England, RPIB consultation launch news release (June 2026): bankofengland.co.uk
  • Bank of England, “RPIB consultation on the Design of the Future Retail Payments Infrastructure”: bankofengland.co.uk/paper/2026/cp/rpib-consultation
  • Bank of England, “The Retail Payments Infrastructure Board (RPIB)”: bankofengland.co.uk
  • HM Treasury, “National Payments Vision” (November 2024): gov.uk
  • Bank of England, PVDC update on retail payments infrastructure (July 2025): bankofengland.co.uk
  • PVDC, Strategy for Future Retail Payments Infrastructure (November 2025): gov.uk (PDF)
  • HM Treasury, consultation response on consolidating the PSR into the FCA (April 2026): gov.uk

Why the design phase is the moment to act

The cost of payments infrastructure is paid twice: once to build it, and again for years by everyone who connects to what got built. The RPIB consultation is the rare point where the firms that will pay the second cost can shape the first decision. No deadline bites today, but the design, the data standards, and the access model are all being set now, and that door closes on 11 September 2026.

Disclaimer: The information on RegReportingDesk.com is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, regulatory, tax, or compliance advice. Always consult your compliance officer, legal counsel, or the relevant supervisory authority for guidance specific to your institution.

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