Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to deliver a faster payments infrastructure.

The Faster Payment Scheme (FPS) launched in 2008 and provides near-instant settlement for over one billion payments that consumers and businesses make every year.

FPS is one of the eight payment systems regulated by the new Payment Systems Regulator – which the Government launched in 2015, equipped with powers to ensure that UK payment systems are competitive and innovative. A key part of the PSR’s work is to ensure that UK payment systems work efficiently to deliver benefits for the individuals and firms that use them.

The Government is also working with the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Project Innovate – which looks to foster and support innovative financial technology (“FinTech”) firms, including firms that offer customers new and efficient ways to make payments in the UK.