The UK Government Is Considering Scrapping Its Payments Systems Regulator
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The UK Government is deciding whether or not to abolish its Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), in which case it would be folded into the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The Payment Systems Regulator has been operating as a subsidiary of the FCA, although it maintained full independence. Even so, it shared some operational services with the country’s main financial regulator.
Now, however, the government is considering whether to just scrap the entire payments watchdog. The government believes that doing so might remove a lot of red tape from the country’s economy, helping its growth agenda.
For now, the idea is still being debated, but the final decision is relatively close, and it is expected to be made within a few weeks, according to local news sources. However, they also reported this weekend that the government is serious about making this move and that it was actively considering it.
The UK Is Desperately Trying To Boost Growth
The country’s economy has been struggling throughout 2024, despite its best efforts to reverse the negative trend and allow the nation to thrive once more. With 2024 ending without achieving this goal, the hope is now that it might happen in 2025, but the start of the new year has been sluggish as well.
In 2024, the country saw zero growth in Q3, and the Bank of England expects similar results for Q4 2024. Reports from January 2025 say that the UK is likely to avoid an outright recession, even if just barely.
As a result, it is now trying everything in its power to speed up the recovery process, and removing limitations and red tape imposed by the PSR is one such move. The current Government has already made other moves to purge regulatory bodies that were considered unnecessary, or negative for the country’s growth.
Just last month, the chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority, Marcus Bokkerink, was ousted due to concerns that the Authority was hindering growth. He was then replaced by a former Amazon executive, Doug Gurr. In the aftermath, both the chair and chief executive of the Financial Ombudsman Service have said that they intend to step down.
