There seems to be such an ever-growing amount of regulatory change and industry initiatives in payments now that it can be difficult to keep up. Examples include Open Banking, Confirmation of Payee, Request to Pay, RTGS replacement, New Payments Architecture and the ISO20022 message standard. Every week there seems to be more information coming out from the regulators and  the payment schemes  in the financial press. The timelines are confusing and seem to keep changing. The next few years will bring about fundamental change in the way payments operate in the UK. Being able to have a team of people dedicated to following every update and reading every regulatory publication is a luxury only the largest financial institutions can afford.

How can small and mid-tier financial institutions work out what is important and see the wood from the trees? Regardless of size, all financial institutions need to conform to payments regulations or risk their very existence. However, when your organisation does not have dedicated payments industry expertise, how do you address what we see as the three main challenges - identifying the relevant parts of the regulations, understanding the changes and timelines and finally assessing the impact on the organisation?

Adopting a structured approach is the key to success.

• Education - use the sources of information freely available from the payment schemes and UK Finance.  Seek professional guidance if necessary, to help you with interpretation.
• Impact - what people, processes and technology will be impacted and to what extent? Are your current systems capable of meeting the requirements?
• Strategy ? what is your organisation's response to meeting the regulations? Are there any opportunities for commercialisation?
• Delivery roadmap - how to sequence all the changes to minimise disruption within your organisation but still meet the industry deadlines.
• Strategic investment - helping the Executive team understand the costs of this regulatory change and its potential impact on the business plan.

With regard to specifically addressing the challenges of ISO20022, Org is holding a webinar on 18 March at 8am. If you would like to join the event click here to register.

Org is spearheading an initiative to provide small and mid-tier financial institutions ongoing access to payments expertise through a ?Virtual Inhouse Payments Team? service. If you would like to find out more, please contact nmccaw@thisisorg.io or mcowlin@thisisorg.com

Free webinars: Payments Regulation and Open Banking and Open Finance

UK Finance is running a series of free briefings in March to support members with the evolving 2021 regulatory landscape. 

Thurs 25 March (12:00), Payments Regulation
I am looking forward to leading a session on Payments Regulation where I?ll be joined by a panel of experts including Clare Stothard and Noline Matemera from TLT to discuss the sweeping changes in the past year accelerated by the pandemic fundamentally changing the way consumers conduct their transactions. I?ll also be discussing the regulatory aspects of the recent Future Ready Payments 2030 report.

Mon 29 March (12:00), Open Banking & Open Finance
Customers are making great use of open banking services and this year the FCA will respond to its call for input on Open Finance initiatives. There is wide ranging and agreed ambition to create a more competitive financial landscape. In this session, my colleague Phillip Mind, Open Banking lead, will be joined by experts including Luke Patterson, Partner, Advisory, BDO, to analyse the important regulatory considerations for financial services companies as these initiatives go from concept to a ?new normal?.