The heads of leading UK banks will gather on February 19 for the first official meeting dedicated to the launch of a national payment system, which is intended to become an independent alternative to American giants Visa and Mastercard.
The meeting will be chaired by Vim Maru, CEO of Barclays UK. Representatives of key financial institutions in the City of London who are prepared to finance the project will participate in the discussion. Participants include Santander UK, NatWest, Nationwide, Lloyds Banking Group, Coventry Building Society, the Link ATM network, and, notably, Visa and Mastercard themselves, which are among the investor groups.
The initiative, currently known under the working title DeliveryCo, has been discussed for years, but the process has now accelerated dramatically. The main reason is growing concerns that the administration of US President Donald Trump could use control over payment systems as a tool of geopolitical pressure. According to the Payment Systems Regulator, approximately 95% of card transactions in the UK are processed through the Visa and Mastercard infrastructure. If these systems are shut down, banking sources say, the country’s economy could be thrown “back to the 1950s,” when cashless payments were virtually nonexistent and transactions were predominantly made in cash.
The new system is designed as an additional payment backbone that will ensure the resilience of critical transactions even during disruptions or sanctions imposed by foreign operators. According to preliminary estimates, the platform’s full launch is not expected until 2030, as time will be needed to develop the infrastructure, test it, obtain regulatory approval, and integrate it with merchants.
Experts note that continental Europe is currently taking similar steps: the European Payments Initiative (EPI) is actively developing the Wero wallet and uniting national systems to create an instant payments network independent of American companies.
The creation of a British national payment system could be an important step toward greater financial sovereignty for the United Kingdom amid growing geopolitical uncertainty.