Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the level of competition within the UK’s retail payments market, particularly in relation to international card schemes; and what steps they are taking to support the development of competitive domestic payment infrastructure.

The UK has a diverse and competitive retail payments ecosystem, with a significant number of entrants into the sector in recent years.

The UK nonetheless remains a heavily card-based market. The Government recognises that greater choice in how to make and receive payments is likely to increase innovation and downward competitive pressure on the cost of payments.

In the National Payments Vision the government set out its ambition for account-to-account payments to be developed as a ubiquitous payment method – enabling consumers to pay digitally for goods and services in shops and online, without using a card. A new Retail Payments Infrastructure Board, chaired by the Bank of England and with representation from across the payments ecosystem, is currently working to design the UK’s future retail payments infrastructure in line with the government’s vision.