In December 2015, we consulted on our proposed approach for allocating, calculating and collecting the PSR’s Annual Funding Requirement (AFR) for 2016/17. 

This document sets out our policy decisions on the allocation, calculation, and collection of PSR fees for 2016/17, and further proposals for consultation. 

We are also consulting on our proposed approach for an anticipated 2015/16 underspend.

Why are we publishing this document?

This document forms part of our annual cycle of fees consultation for 2016/17. It confirms certain aspects of our approach, and asks for stakeholders’ views on elements we are still consulting on.

We are seeking feedback by 5pm Friday 13 May 2016.

What are the fees for 2016/17?

The PSR’s Annual Funding Requirement (AFR) for the year 2016/17 will be £15.2 million. We are proposing to split this across the PSR’s FSBRA and IFR functions as follows:

  • £13.7 million for our FSBRA functions and concurrent competition powers
  • £1.5 million for our IFR functions

Who should read this document?

This consultation is relevant to participants in regulated payment systems under FSBRA, IFR regulated persons and any PSPs which operate in the UK.

What do I need to know? 

For FSBRA we have decided to follow the same approach as last year. Our FSBRA AFR will be allocated equally across Bacs, CHAPS, C&C/NICC, FPS, LINK, MasterCard and Visa. 

For IFR we have proposed a three-tier approach to the allocation of the IFR AFR, as follows:

  • equal AFR allocation across the larger IFR card payment systems with more than 10 million UK transactions 
  • those with more than 100,000 and less than 10 million UK transactions would pay a flat fee
  • the systems with the smallest UK presence (less than 100,000 UK transactions) pay no PSR fee for 2016/17 

Our plan is to implement this approach subject to the outcome of the additional consultation points, as discussed below.

What proposals are we consulting on?

We are consulting on the following:

  • The FSBRA and IFR fee levels, i.e. the amount to pay, for PSPs and operators resulting from our policy decisions
  • Our proposal concerning operators of card payment systems that also act as an acquiring or card issuing PSP.  We are proposing that such the operators would be liable to pay the entire PSR fee allocation for that card system. 
  • Postponing the August and September payment deadlines by one month for both our FSBRA and IFR fees. This is to address concerns raised by some respondents about the time available to invoice and collect these fees over the summer. 
  • Our proposed approach and process for handling our anticipated 2015/16 budget underspend.  We are proposing an ‘automatic’ refund and credit of our anticipated 2015/16 budget underspend against 2016/17 FSBRA fees which are due from individual PSPs to FSBRA operators.

What happens next?

Once the consultation has closed, we will consider the responses received and we will publish our final decision on the allocation, calculation and collection of 2016/17 fees in the summer 2016.

Next steps

We welcome your feedback on our proposals for 2016/17 PSR regulatory fees by 5pm on Friday 13 May 2016. You can respond to our consultation by sending your comments to us at: PSRfees@psr.org.uk

Further information

If you are interested in learning more about PSR fees, you can read:

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