The PSR became fully operational in April 2015 and the regulator’s current fees-collection process was designed for its early years of operations. Since then, a number of legislative measures have been introduced including the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR) and the updated Payment Services Directive (PSD2). There are also anticipated structural changes to the industry through the consolidation of three interbank schemes – Faster Payments, Bacs and Credit & Cheque Clearing Company.
With these new, wide-reaching industry changes on the horizon, coupled with feedback from regulated firms, the PSR is now setting out a number of options aimed at making sure the regulator has a simple, sustainable and proportionate approach to allocating its fees to fee payers. One of the key proposals is to collect its annual fees directly from fee payers, rather than indirectly via operators of payment systems.
To ensure any proposed changes work as efficiently and effectively as possible, two further consultations will take place, one around November 2017 when the regulator will set out its proposed changes, and the other in March 2018 about the proposed fee rates for 2018/19.
Hannah Nixon, Managing Director of the Payment Systems Regulator, said:
‘The payments industry is constantly evolving and these options are designed to be flexible and future proof us for regulatory and industry changes. We’ve listened carefully to the feedback we’ve received from our fee payers since we became fully operational and we believe these initial options will both support our work and simplify the process of allocating and collecting the annual levy.
‘We have taken care to ensure the options also strike the right balance for everyone, meaning that all organisations have the opportunity to compete effectively.’
Full details of the consultation are available on the PSR’s website and responses for the first consultation are open until 28 September 2017.