RPIB opens consultation on next-generation UK retail payments infrastructure
The Retail Payments Infrastructure Board wants industry views on the future design of the UK's core retail payment rails. Responses are due 11 September 2026.
The Retail Payments Infrastructure Board (RPIB) launched a consultation on 25 June 2026 on the future design of the UK's next-generation retail payments infrastructure. No formal document reference number is available for this consultation. If your firm touches retail payment rails, this is action required: read the consultation and consider responding before 11 September 2026.
The RPIB is a senior industry advisory board chaired by the Bank of England, bringing together experts from banks, building societies, payment service providers, fintechs and merchants. The consultation sits within the National Payments Vision, which is overseen by the Payments Vision Delivery Committee, a cross-authority body chaired by HM Treasury and including the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator.
The consultation covers the types of payments the new infrastructure should support. Alongside existing functionality, it includes account-to-account payments at the point of sale as an alternative to card payments, and enhanced cross-border payments.
Feedback will inform a high-level design blueprint, which will then be handed to a new industry-led Delivery Company to implement. The governance and ownership structure of the Delivery Company has not been set out at this stage.
Pay.UK, which operates the UK's existing retail interbank payment systems including Faster Payments, Bacs and the Image Clearing System, will continue to run those systems while the new infrastructure is developed.
Two related strands sit alongside this consultation but fall outside its scope and require no separate action at this stage. The Bank of England's regulatory approach to systemic stablecoins is described as part of the same National Payments Vision, with the Bank working alongside industry through the RPIB on the broader infrastructure design. Separately, no decision has been taken on whether to proceed with a digital pound; the Bank and HM Treasury are in the final stages of the design phase and will publish their conclusions later in 2026.
What to do. Payment firms and others reliant on retail payment rails should read the consultation and decide whether to respond before 11 September 2026.
Sources
- Rpib launches consultation on next generation uk payments infrastructurebankofengland.co.uk
- Sterling denominated systemic stablecoinbankofengland.co.uk
