The UK is currently facing a rare opportunity in the world of payments. After years of debate about the future of the country’s payments ecosystem, government and regulators are now moving from discussion to delivery, with work underway to implement the National Payments Vision for world-leading payments delivered on next-generation technology.‍

In 2026, decisionmakers face a defining year - one that will determine how the UK can deliver near-term value from payments innovation, while reclaiming its position at the forefront of account-to-account (A2A) payments for the long term.‍

A look at how far we’ve come

In 2008, when the UK’s Faster Payments System (FPS) launched, it marked a step-change in payments and, nearly two decades on, it remains one of the most reliable and trusted real-time systems in the world, delivering the resilience and trust the UK economy depends on every day.

Previously, same-day payments came at a premium, with CHAPS offering speed, but at a significantly higher per-transaction cost. With FPS, businesses can move as much as £1m, while consumers can send up to £100,000 depending on their bank. This evolution has lowered costs for both people and businesses while giving users far greater control and flexibility in their banking apps.

With spending habits changing at pace and transformative technologies reshaping the market, our industry is now calling for modernisation that prioritises interoperability, unlocks greater innovation from fintechs and builds a bridge toward digital assets. ‍

The UK’s strength in A2A needs to be maintained

Given the unmatched resilience of the existing A2A infrastructure, which seamlessly processes more than £27 billion in payments every day, why do we need to add new features? The short answer: to add new capabilities that give people and businesses in the UK more choice to pay how they want, when they want and enable new services  across trusted and interoperable rails.

Some of these can already be delivered on today’s real-time payments infrastructure, materialising the short-term benefits of innovation, while laying the foundations for the next generation of payments.

Account-to-account payments, through their versatility, speed and efficiency, also have the potential to boost UK GDP by £9 billion annually according to a recent EY report - at a time when economic growth is a priority.

Technologies like digital assets and tokenisation are making waves and new use cases in AI are rapidly emerging across the industry. Coupled with strong resilience and trust, we can build on this innovation to move the UK confidently forward.

The current UK interbank services run by Vocalink, a Mastercard company, have reliably and seamlessly supported government welfare payments, salaries and real-time transfers between friends, families and business since 1968.

Now there’s scope to reduce the cost and friction in cross-border transactions, enhance consumer protections, enable new forms of money and further bolster retail payments. And we’ve seen firsthand the economic growth these capabilities can unlock, with Mastercard delivering and modernising real-time payment switch capabilities across markets over the past decade, including in Singapore and the United States.

Now, the UK is once again looking for a world-leading position in payments - maintaining the trust, security and reliability of the existing FPS, while adding new features that allow people and businesses to do more with their money.  And we know what happens when the UK innovates: entirely new sectors emerge. Just think of Monzo, Starling and Revolut - they grew into fintech powerhouses with A2A very much part of their evolution. ‍

What’s next for A2A?

We envisage a future where fintechs can rapidly experiment and build new ideas and services on top of the UK’s highly resilient A2A infrastructure – a vision aligned with the Bank of England’s Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden who describes the need for ‘faster, cheaper, more resilient ways for people and businesses to pay in an increasingly digital world’.

As the wider market shifts toward digital assets, programmable money will introduce meaningful gains in predictability and automation in real-time payments. Businesses, for example, could receive payments in all forms of money, automate supplier payments the moment shipment is delivered or schedule recurring payments on specific dates. These are just snapshots of the future we’re planning for as the Bank of England considers how to advance A2A in the UK.

So, as we look to the next chapter in the UK’s payments story, I’m energised by the opportunity for Mastercard, fintechs and banks to collaborate to advance the digital payments ecosystem and boost the UK economy. With 58 years of experience running the country’s retail payment processing service, we’re ready to help shape a future where people and businesses benefit from even greater choice, trust and value in how they pay.