UK Payments Leaders Favour Evolution Over a Clean-Sheet Rebuild

Editorial Calendar UK Payments Leaders Favour Evolution Over a Clean-Sheet Rebuild Its survey of 350 payments leaders shows 85 per cent believe the next phase of modernisation should work with existing infrastructure, rising to 98 per cent among executive and strategic leaders. Support was spread across selective replacement, parallel running, updated data standards and targeted integration, suggesting the industry is looking for a phased transition rather than a single wholesale rebuild. The findings come as the UK moves from setting out its ambitions for payments reform towards deciding how the next generation of retail payments infrastructure will be delivered.

CI&T’s report,From Vision to Delivery, The Choices That Will Define UK Payments Reform,was published as theRetail Payments Infrastructure Board’s consultation on the design of the future infrastructureclosed on 11 September. Eighty-two per cent of respondents support the government’s National Payments Vision, published in 2024, which set out plans to improve innovation, competition and security across UK payments. Yet only 29% said they were very confident in how the programme would work.

Communication also emerged as a near-universal concern, with 349 of the 350 people surveyed expecting problems. The delivery roadmap and its milestones topped the list of concerns at 33%. How the programme fits alongside other regulation and what testing, migration and readiness will require of participants were each cited by 30%.

Young Pham, global head of financial services AI at CI&T, said: “The UK has reached the stage of payments reform where intent has to become delivery.” He added that the gap between general and firm confidence pointed to the areas where the industry wanted greater clarity, including milestones, responsibilities, readiness requirements and the route from today’s infrastructure to the system the UK ultimately wants to build. While respondents strongly favoured building around existing infrastructure, there was no clear consensus