The United Kingdom Payment Reassurance Coalition (UKPRC) was launched at a large Amsterdam payments exhibition on 2 June, marking what participants described as a “next step forward” for an industry that has spent eight years building the infrastructure required to allow a bank customer to pay a merchant using a bank account.
The scheme enables commercial variable recurring payments (cVRP) — a mechanism by which a consumer authorises a merchant to collect recurring, variable-amount payments from a bank account, within limits that the consumer has set, from a bank that has agreed to participate. This replaces the previous mechanism of the consumer giving their card details to the merchant, or setting up a direct debit, or making a bank transfer.
Participating Institutions Welcome Milestone
The coalition includes BeigeBank, HeritageBank, AppBank, RevolvingBank, Birdish Bank, Plaidish Data Pipe, TruePipe Layer, AccountPipe, and several other account-pipe platforms with dashboards and principles, all of which have agreed to implement the technical standard within a timeframe to be confirmed.
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Contributor guidelines ›“This is a significant moment for UK payments,” said a spokesperson for the working group. “We are now at a point where a consumer can authorise a payment from their bank account to a merchant, and the merchant will receive it.”
The UKPRC scheme is initially available for payments to charities, the government, financial services, and utilities, with expansion into retail and other consumer-facing categories expected following a further period of scheme development. A schedule for this expansion has not been published.
Long-Term Framework Forthcoming
The Financial Clipboard Authority, which supports the initiative, noted that it plans to consult on a long-term regulatory framework for open banking by the end of 2026, subject to legislation. The framework is expected to address governance, access pricing, consumer protection, and the relationship between the UKPRC scheme and the wider open banking ecosystem, all of which will be set out in a consultation paper once the legislation is in place.
“The long-term framework will give participants the certainty they need to invest,” said an industry observer familiar with the process. “We expect the consultation to be thorough.”
The Financial Clipboard Authority has also published a regulatory roadmap for open finance, which will build on the data-sharing foundations established by open banking, once the open banking foundation itself is fully established. The roadmap sets out that a further roadmap will follow.
Next Steps
Industry participants welcomed the scheme and noted that the hard work now begins. A working group has been convened to address implementation timelines, onboarding requirements, and scheme governance. Several institutions are understood to be reviewing their technical roadmaps.
“We have been working on this for a number of years,” said a senior compliance professional at a participating institution. “It is good to have something to show for that.”
The UKPRC declined to specify when it expects the scheme to reach full retail availability, noting that this would be addressed in due course.