The New Payments System Operator (NPSO) will allow banks to access the UK’s payment systems through a single location and took over running Faster Payments and Bacs on May 1. The two systems transact £6.3 trillion a year, and account for the majority of payments made in the UK.
The decision to form the NPSO was made following a report from the Payment Systems Operator Delivery Group, a body set up by the Payment Systems Regulator and the Bank of England. The platform was in development for four years.
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| Paul Thomalla, ACI Worldwide |
Paul Thomalla, senior vice president, corporate relations and development, at payment systems company ACI Worldwide, says the move will pull together a number of processes and operate as a super-utility: “NSPO is a consolidation of many schemes. The multitude of different platforms including card, cheques, accounts clearing house (ACH) and Faster Payments, are all managed from one location.”
Payments operations have become ever more complex over time as new systems have been added. Thomalla says: “The payments space has built up to be a cumbersome process. Past systems are never cancelled and remain in their historical groups.