The Payment Systems Regulator has published its 2025/26 annual report, outlining progress on card fee oversight, Authorised Push Payment fraud protections, open banking and the future UK payments infrastructure. The report presents a year in which the regulator imposed new requirements on Mastercard and Visa, expanded consumer protections against APP fraud and worked with other authorities on reforms to retail payments, while also advancing plans to fold its functions into the Financial Conduct Authority. On card payments, the PSR said it introduced new requirements on Mastercard and Visa covering scheme and processing fees and sought greater transparency over how they govern their services, against a backdrop of 31.4 billion UK card transactions. On fraud, payment firms had reimbursed GBP 243 million to APP fraud victims by the end of 2025, and the PSR reported a decline in the types of fraud covered by its reimbursement policy. It also continued publishing fraud data and in February 2026 fined Bank of Ireland UK for missing the deadline to implement Confirmation of Payee. In open banking, payments grew by 53% in 2025 and more than 16 million users now use open banking services. The PSR and Financial Conduct Authority supported the rollout of variable recurring payments and helped establish the UK Payments Initiative. Through the Payments Vision Delivery Committee with HM Treasury, the Bank of England and the FCA, work also continued on upgrades to Faster Payments and Bacs and on a new model for the UK's future retail payments infrastructure. Looking ahead, the Financial Services and Markets Bill introduced in May 2026 includes provisions to transfer the PSR's functions to the FCA while preserving their substance and scope. The report says both regulators have already been working more closely together, including through a joint response to the government's consultation, and points readers to the 2026/27 Annual Plan for the year-ahead work programme.

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