Payments as a Service

In this chapter, the author proposes that how people consume payments, opening access to payments to organizations that struggle to gain access to consistent and Immediate payments with a known and consistent pricing. To address this, the payments industry, with pressure from the regulator, started the Faster Payments Access Programme to make it easier for banks and more payment service providers to on-board. The Faster Payments Service was developed by the top 10 UK banks, wanting to provide an Infrastructure for Immediate payments to complement the two existing payment schemes - CHAPS and BACS. At the other end of the spectrum, the UK has been the dominant player in the global FinTech space, with over 1,500 e-money institutions and payment institutions. This includes paying suppliers in real time to align with their just-in-time deliveries, and paying staff more frequently or enabling them to draw down their salary, immediately, before the typical month end pay day.