The UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has published the terms of reference and membership details of a new payment systems task force.
The creation of the task force follows the Chancellor's Pre-Budget report last November which stated that the competition watchdog would take on an enhanced role on payment systems for four years.
The task force brings together industry, retail, consumer and government representatives with an interest in payment systems. The group will be chaired by Jonathan May, director markets and policy initiatives at OFT and includes representatives from the British Bankers' Association, the Building Societies Association, Apacs, Visa UK, MasterCard, Link and the British Retail Consortium.
The Bank of England and HM Treasury will sit as observers to the task force.
The group aims to identify and seek to resolve competition, efficiency and incentive issues relating to payment systems, with particular emphasis on the network effects of existing payment mechanisms. Consumer issues associated with payment systems will also be considered. The task force will also take account of previous work on payment systems, including previous Cruickshank and OFT reports, as well as later developments.
The first meeting has been set for Monday 26 April, with the following meeting in June. A number of sub-groups will be established to take work forward on various issues between Task Force meetings.
The Government will then review competition in the payments industry at the end of the four year period and consider whether legislation is necessary.