Retail payments blueprint targets shared core and flexible access
The Retail Payments Infrastructure Board proposes a modular core for UK retail payments, drawing on 121 responses to its June 2026 consultation. A blueprint will pass to the industry-led Delivery Company in spring 2027.
One core across payment products
The Retail Payments Infrastructure Board (RPIB) proposes reusable capabilities for existing and future payment products, proportionate connectivity options and common ISO 20022 messaging.
An orchestration layer would validate, route and sequence payments, including batches, and potentially support temporary conversion from legacy formats.
Participants would share their own liquidity across products, subject to further design work.
The core would coordinate settlement through the Bank of England's real-time gross settlement service in central bank money.
The Bank considers prefunded net settlement suitable for most envisaged products.
Decisions on shared fraud prevention, data, directory and alias services remain open.
Migration must preserve existing resilience
Respondents supported a relatively thin core but differed over shared-service boundaries, costs and competition.
They favoured phased migration over a single transition and opposed retiring existing systems before replacements were proven.
Consumer protection, refunds, disputes, merchant acceptance and commercial incentives were prerequisites for account-to-account point-of-sale payments.
RPIB Chair Victoria Cleland stressed that Pay.UK must maintain resilient existing services while the Delivery Company develops the replacement.
The core cannot deliver alone
Core renewal alone will not deliver the intended payment journeys.
Protection, liability and sustainable commercial arrangements also depend on schemes and providers outside the infrastructure.
The blueprint handover leaves detailed design, procurement, construction and migration ahead.