Our Chief Operations Officer, David Morris, recently joined leaders from The Payments Association, NatWest, Bottomline and the Bank of England for a webinar on Futureproofing UK Payments: Messaging, Connectivity and Orchestration Strategies for Banks and Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs). The panel explored how the UK’s payments landscape is evolving and what financial institutions need to focus on to stay ahead.
A link to a recording of the webinar can be accessed here, and a summary of the key points discussed is detailed below.
A new phase of modernisation
The UK’s National Payments Vision sets out a long-term plan to increase choice, strengthen resilience and support innovation across retail and wholesale payments. Delivering this will require close collaboration across regulators, banks and fintechs, underpinned by secure design, strong user confidence and consistent data standards.
The panel agreed that the UK must balance innovation and resilience, ensuring new payment capabilities are safe, interoperable and deliver genuine value for users.
ISO 20022 as the next major enabler
ISO 20022 is a critical building block for future payments. Its richer, structured data enables better fraud detection, enhanced automation and greater operational insight, while aligning the UK with global standards.
David emphasised the need to view ISO 20022 adoption through a total cost of ownership lens whereby the long-term simplification and resilience benefits, and potential for new services will outweigh costs. He stressed the importance of a clear business case for this and noted that orchestration would not only simplify ISO 20022 implementation but also support customer choice by enabling organisations to route payments to emerging and innovative options.
Navigating a multi-money future
Speakers emphasised the challenges that banks face with maintaining resilience and trust while managing increasing competition, and stressed the importance of modular architecture, allowing banks to support multiple infrastructures and adopt new capabilities over time.
The discussion highlighted that innovations such as tokenised assets must be approached through a customer first lens. New capabilities should improve liquidity, strengthen resilience, and be simple and trustworthy enough for customers to adopt with confidence. While emerging technologies are exciting, the real challenge is ensuring they are safely launched and embedded for everyday users. The panellists stressed that change must be driven by customer needs rather than technology, supported by strong protections, clear standards and robust fraud prevention measures so users feel confident and safeguarded as the ecosystem evolves.
Why orchestration will be essential
As the ecosystem becomes more complex, orchestration is emerging as a key enabler, coordinating different processes, rails and controls to create a smoother, safer payment journey. Benefits include intelligent routing, streamlined risk management, easier integration and more consistent customer experiences.
David noted that while the technical build is well understood, customer adoption is often the harder challenge. Success depends on deep understanding of end-to-end journeys and working with the industry to reduce payment frictions. He also highlighted opportunities for public/private collaboration to simplify orchestration adoption, reduce ecosystem barriers and make better use of shared utilities, such as ISO 20022 and Confirmation of Payee.
The panellists added that end users increasingly expect a full end-to-end experience, from pre-validation to real-time status updates and confirmation of settlement. As expectations around compliance, security and resilience rise, orchestration will help organisations to meet these demands.
Innovation and resilience must advance together
The panel agreed that innovation must strengthen, not compromise, resilience. Enhanced analytics, stronger data sharing and tools such as Confirmation of Payee will be vital in tackling fraud.
Speakers also highlighted that new payment capabilities, including variable recurring payments, should complement, rather than replace, trusted services like Direct Debit, supported by strong protections and a shared industry strategy.
Conclusion
David said: “As the payments landscape evolves, our collective responsibility is to make innovation safe, connected and accessible for everyone. Futureproofing UK payments isn’t just about new technology, it’s about building the trust, resilience and interoperability that will carry the industry forward. By working together, we can create a system that’s smarter, stronger and ready for whatever comes next.”
