The U.K. Payment Systems Regulator has revised the timeline for its work on the market review into the supply of card-acquiring services. The PSR will publish its interim report for consultation in Q1 2020, instead of by the end of 2019 as initially set out in the Terms of Reference. The postponement has come about as the PSR has identified a number of additional issues that need to be addressed in the review.

The market review is a response to concerns that the supply of card-acquiring services from specialist providers by merchants (to enable card payments to be accepted and processed on their behalf) may not be working well for some merchants and, ultimately, consumers. The market review is intended to examine the lack of transparency around merchants' fees for accepting card payments and barriers to competition in the card-acquirer services market.

View the PSR's announcement.

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