Britain’s payments watchdog is expected to be abolished as part of a purge of regulators being thrashed out in Whitehall.
Sky News has learnt that ministers and officials are examining whether to scrap the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) and fold it into the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
A decision is expected to be taken in principle within weeks, although sources indicated this weekend that the government was “actively considering” a decision to scrap the body.
If confirmed, it would form part of a crackdown on Britain’s economic regulators instigated by Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, and Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, as they seek to cut red tape and stimulate economic growth.
The chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Marcus Bokkerink, was ousted by ministers last month amid concerns that it was paying too little heed to UK competitiveness.
Mr Bokkerink was replaced by Doug Gurr, a former Amazon executive.
Since then, both the chair and chief executive of the Financial Ombudsman Service have announced plans to step down.
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Speaking in January, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, signalled that a number of watchdogs could be abolished, saying: “We’ve got to genuinely ask ourselves the question: have we got the right number of regulators?”
He did not publicly identify which of them could be axed, although the Financial Times reported this week that the chancellor would order an audit of roughly 130 regulators across the economy to assess whether they were sufficiently focused on growth.
On Christmas Eve, the PM and chancellor wrote to about 15 major regulators – including Ofcom, Ofgem and Ofwat – demanding ideas for how to remove bureaucracy from the economy and more proactively encourage growth.
Ms Reeves has since held a number of roundtable discussions with the recipients of the letter.
The PSR employs roughly 160 people, according to its website, and is directly accountable to parliament.
It was created under the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013, and became operational two years later.
The body, which is accountable to parliament, has been criticised by industry and politicians over its regulatory approach, including in relation to fraud reimbursement by financial services firms.
Nevertheless, its function is regarded as critical as technology reshapes the global payments industry.
David Geale, the interim managing director of the PSR, has been in post since last summer.
The watchdog is chaired by Aidene Walsh, a former boss of the financial wellbeing charity, the Fairbanking Foundation.
Sheldon Mills, the FCA’s executive director, consumers and competition, also sits on the PSR board.
One source said scrapping the PSR and folding it into the FCA would make sense for several reasons, including the questions over its performance.
“No other major economy has a standalone payments regulator like this, and it is hard to make the case for it continuing to exist,” the source said this weekend.
The Treasury declined to comment, while the PSR did not respond to an emailed enquiry on Saturday morning.
