Building a framework and infrastructure for a world-leading payments ecosystem is critical for the UK's continued leadership in financial services. The question ‘How can we ensure innovation, competition and high security standards?’ was answered by industry experts at IFGS 2025.
The panel consisted of Dan Moore, head of strategy, analysis and engagement at PSR; Faith Reynolds, director at Devon Fields Consulting; Andy Sacre, head of payments at Monzo; Iana Vidal, head of UK public policy at Block; Paul Worthington, head of UK public policy and government relations at Stripe; and Kunal Jhanji, managing director and partner at BCG, who discussed the UK’s National Payments Vision.
Moderating the panel, Jhanji opened the conversation by asking how the national payments vision can be delivered with tangible outcomes for the UK market.
Moore highlighted the need for collaboration and compromise, mentioning: “One of the benefits of the national payments vision is it sets out sub-deliverables by timescales, and we really have to focus on infrastructure at the end of this quarter, a vision for retail bank infrastructure, and enhanced collaboration between the regulators.”
Discussing the opportunity to innovate without significant infrastructure renewals, and focusing on making the payments infrastructure cloud-native, API-based, and scalable—Sacre stated: “I make a plea to the industry to say look, we're not blocked by infrastructure renewal. If we want to innovate, let's get together and do it. We don't need big regulatory and legislative change to make innovation happen on the rails that we've currently got.”
The conversation turned to how the UK's unique market conditions, including infrastructure, tech talent, regulatory certainty, and political will, are key drivers for innovation. On the need for a scalable tech stack to support diverse payment options, including stablecoins, Vidal detailed: “We talk about the faster payments service, about banks, and about stablecoins as the biggest growing thing in the community today. How can we bring this together and make it as interoperable and optimal as possible? That’s what gives our business the comfort; that there's a huge amount of opportunity here in terms of building out that diversity.”
However, Worthington noted the need for a clear roadmap, and how the National Payments Vision instigates conversations around the future of retail payments infrastructure. “These next few months are critical to understand what the roadmap is going to look like, to ensure we're not sat here in two years time talking about the National Payments Vision part two,” said Worthington.
The importance of addressing current issues, such as access and inclusion, and ensuring digital payments appeal to all consumers was emphasised by Reynolds, who further commented on how digital payments are not attractive to people on low or unstable incomes because they do not provide enough control.
“How are we going to make these digital payments attractive and improve digital and financial inclusion in the UK? I think our strategy must look at how it's going to deal with cash, and how it's going to deal with people who haven't previously wanted to be included within the system, and that goes to the counterpoints around trust and security,” stated Reynolds.
Jhanji then mentioned the issue of interoperability between new forms of money, such as stablecoins and digital pounds, and existing forms of money— asking “How do you see those two worlds coming together, and how does the vision document start to bring some sort of infrastructure on commercial value propositions and the players together?”
Vidal responded by mentioning the need for regulatory certainty and standards to drive innovation and investment in new forms of money, and how it’s key for customers, “however they're making the payment, through whatever sort of mode, to have the ability to do it and do it safely and responsibly”.
Concluding on a forward-looking discussion, Jhanji invited thoughts on what most excites the panel most about the National Payments Vision. Worthington highlighted upcoming deliverables for the first half of the year, particularly the future retail infrastructure and the government's framework from public bodies. Reynolds pointed to the the potential for digital identity and digital wallets to enhance consumer interactions with payment services. Sacre emphasised the raised bar in building more resilient systems. Vidal noted the ambitious nature of the National Payments Vision, and it’s potential to catalyse major innovation in the UK payments landscape. Moore closed by mentioning the huge opportunity for competition and innovation, stressing the critical importance of getting infrastructure right to support account-to-account and open banking initiatives.