Fraud prevention is top payments priority for Brits

Editorial

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

The bank’s ‘Transacting Tomorrow: The role of retail payments in powering UK growth’ report finds 70% of consumers believe today’s payments work well, but want future innovation to tackle what they perceive to be “the real gaps”, primarily fraud and consumer protection.

Concerns over security have led to a wariness of new payment methods, as two thirds of adults are very unlikely to use cryptocurrencies to make payments in the future, citing volatility, privacy risks and lack of protection as key deterrents.

More than half of the public (55%) say they have not heard “anything” about the Bank of England’s digital pound project, and a majority of those who have, see it as unnecessary or confusing.

Just one in five people polled believe new ways to pay are needed.

A year ago, the government set out its National Payments Vision and is now in the process of developing a New Payments Architecture programme, which will replace the current Faster Payments and Bacs retail interbank payment system, with clearing and settlement taking place over a single purpose-built central infrastructure.

Santander is offering its own 10 payments priorities for policymakers, regulators and industry, including a plan to “design out fraud by embedding prevention, data-sharing and clear liability into every new system. Elsewhere, the bank suggests moves to make innovation commercially viable, protecting cards’ strengths, and backing tokenisation over a retail CBDC.

Paul Horlock, chief payments officer, Santander UK, says: “The whole ecosystem from government, regulators, banks and fintechs must build a model that meets consumer demand and protects users, while also ensuring the commercial viability of future ways to pay.”