The industry has risen to the challenge that the government set at the end of 2024 calling for industry partners to play their role in supporting the effective and timely delivery of commercial variable payments (cVRPs).
- 31 organisations – including Fintechs, high street banks, challenger banks and payment providers – have agreed to fund efforts to create an independent operator to take forward work with industry on commercial variable recurring payments.
- This brings to life the National Payments Vision, laid out by the Government, to see an industry-led approach to develop cVRPs.
- cVRPs are a pioneering new payment instruction, enabling consumers to limit the value of any payment from their account, offering a flexible alternative to Direct Debit and card-on-file payments.
- The proposed initial cVRP use cases (Wave 1) will enable payments in sectors including utilities, rail, government agencies, charities, and regulated financial services.
- Consumers and businesses now make more than 27 million open banking-powered payments monthly, and this growth continues year-on-year.
A total of 31 organisations from across the open banking and payments industries have committed to fund initial efforts to create a new company that will carry forward work to establish cVRPs on a viable commercial footing, delivering competition, innovation and consumer choice in the payments landscape, all of which are key aims of the National Payments Vision.
This new entity will be wholly owned and run by industry. A decision on enduring funding for the entity will be made after this initial phase of work.
The proposed initial use cases for cVRPs will focus on selected regulated industries such as payments to utility and rail companies, regulated financial firms, e-money institutions, government bodies, and charities. cVRPs in these areas would give consumers better control over regular payments, as well as a frictionless payment experience when buying goods or services from websites.
Open banking has already transformed the payments landscape in the past seven years, with uptake of account-to-account payments showing strong growth. In March:
- The total number of payments climbed to 27.21 million, year-on-year growth of 67 per cent.
- Of this total, 3.67 million were variable recurring payments.
- The total number of users reached a record high of 13.31 million.
This is a significant moment for the industry, and I sincerely thank the organisations that have committed to fund efforts to create a company that will carry forward the important work on cVRPs. It is testament to the collaborative nature of our ecosystem that it can be industry-led.
As a collective industry, we will continue to harness the commercial opportunities that lie before us, giving greater choice to our citizens and businesses as well as delivering wider economic growth.”
Henk Van Hulle, OBL CEO
List of organisations funding the establishment of the MLA Operator
| 1. Acquired.com | 12. MetroBank | 23. Santander |
| 2. Barclays | 13. Modulr | 24. Starling |
| 3. Crezco | 14. Moneyhub | 25. Tell Money |
| 4. Currensea | 15. Monzo | 26. Token |
| 5. Ecospend (a Trustly company) | 16. Nationwide | 27. TrueLayer |
| 6. Fire | 17. NatWest | 28. Vanquis (including Snoop) |
| 7. Fumopay | 18. Neonomics/Ordo | 29. Wise |
| 8. GoCardless | 19. OBConnect | 30.Wonderful |
| 9. HSBC | 20. PayPal | 31. Yapily |
| 10. Lloyds Banking Group | 21. Plaid | |
| 11. Mastercard | 22. Revolut |
Notes to Editors
Media contact: WA Communications
Commercial model for Wave 1 cVRP Report
