The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated
…as Mark Twain once cabled to the US press, his obituary having been published a touch early. Alas, no such reprieve awaits the PSR. Having been created by the Conservative coalition government in response to the great abolition of cheques imbroglio, it is now to be merged into the Financial Conduct Authority by Labour. See https://www.gov.uk/government/news/regulator-axed-as-red-tape-is-slashed-to-boost-growth
Should we shed a tear? It has done useful work in encouraging direct participation by smaller banks in the Faster Payments system and BACS, and the declining use of cheques has been made more efficient by the new Image Clearing System. But some of its other priorities could happily live elsewhere. Sorting out Authorised Push Payments looks very much like an FCA task, and its worthy work on cards and merchant acquiring could surely be done by a specialist sub-panel or committee of the Competition and Markets Authority.
The irony is, of course, that any sector regulator – Ofgem, Oftel etc – can happily be abolished when its sector has become ‘competitive’ in some sense and no longer in need of regulation. To misquote St Augustine, perhaps the sector regulator’s prayer is ‘O Lord, make my sector competitive, but not yet’.
gleedsaling 