HM Treasury consults on replacing the UK payments rulebook with FCA rules

HM Treasury opened a 12-week consultation on 14 July 2026, alongside the Mansion House package, on modernising the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and the Electronic Money Regulations 2011. The proposal is to keep core consumer protections and the regulatory perimeter in statute while lifting the technical and firm-facing requirements out of legislation and into FCA rules.

The consultation also asks how the framework should treat tokenised payments, agentic AI payments and new open banking use cases, including a long-term commercial model for open banking. It closes on 6 October 2026.

For acquirers, PSPs and merchants this decides how fast new acceptance models can launch in the UK: rule changes at FCA speed rather than statutory instruments, and a first attempt at a commercial framework for pay-by-bank instead of another interim fix. It also sets the UK on a visibly different clock from the EU, where PSD3 and the PSR are still expected around 2027.

The responses by 6 October, and whether the eventual framework gives open banking a funded commercial model rather than mandated free access.

• gov.uk
• Consultation paper (PDF)