Everyone thinks Britain's payment systems are working, why do they appear to be broken? - Chris Skinner's blog

A Pay.UK report and the UK government’s National Payments Vision present a puzzling picture: Britain’s core payment infrastructure is said to be reliable and resilient, yet concerns persist that the system is “broken.” In a blog post, Chris Skinner highlights the contradiction between Pay.UK’s account of day-to-day processing at massive scale and the Treasury’s call for new strategic direction, governance changes, more competition, improved fraud prevention, and a clearer future path. Skinner also notes that while Pay.UK operates Bacs and Faster Payments, much of the central technology is supplied by Vocalink, acquired by Mastercard in 2017. In December 2025, Pay.UK extended Vocalink contracts into the early 2030s.