UK Open Banking payments ecosystem: New cVRP scheme is ‘welcome step’
Ellie Duncan | News, Women In Open Banking
19 Dec 2025
The news this week that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), supported by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), has set in motion the UK’s first commercial variable recurring payments (cVRP) scheme has been hailed by the ecosystem as “a positive move” and “defining moment”.
On LinkedIn, Colin Payne, head of innovation at the FCA, wrote: “We now expect the first live payments under the UKPI scheme to take place in Q1 2026, marking the start of a new era for payments and Open Banking in the UK.”
He highlighted the combined efforts from across the industry to get to this point.
“You wouldn’t believe how much effort has gone into getting there over the past nine months, involving 31 founding firms, four trade associations, multiple consultancy and law firms, the FCA, the Payment Systems Regulator, HM Treasury, and an exceptional VRP Programme team working relentlessly behind the scenes,” Payne said.
Industry reaction
Nicole Green, VP product strategy, innovation and policy at Yapily, which is one of the 31 organisations involved in funding the UK Payments Initiative (UKPI) that will take forward cVRPs, said on LinkedIn: “This is a significant and welcome step for the UK payments ecosystem. Commercial VRP can materially improve how businesses and consumers move money by reducing friction, increasing control, and providing a genuine alternative to cards.”
Yapily’s Nicole Green
She added: “Establishing the UK Payments Initiative as a new entity by the end of 2025 is a positive move towards scaling flexible, recurring payments for both consumers and businesses.
“Industry alignment behind a Q1 2026 first payment is a strong signal that the market is ready to move beyond frameworks and into real delivery.”
Moneyhub is also one of the 31 organisations that has committed to fund the UKPI.
“Personally, I’m pleased to see progress and hope this momentum continues into early 2026,” Paul Tutton, product manager of payments and APIs at Moneyhub, wrote on LinkedIn.
“I want to see commercial VRP in the hands of consumers and merchants, so they can start to make real use of a brilliantly flexible payment option.”
Adam Cox, co-founder and managing director of Open Banking Expo, said the latest development confirms that “open, account-to-account payments are not just a theoretical evolution, but a practical, scalable alternative to traditional rails for recurring and subscription-based commerce”.
“With VRPs already representing a significant share of Open Banking transactions and the UK Payments Initiative setting up a commercial framework, we are entering a new phase where innovation meets real-world adoption. As an industry, we now have a clear opportunity to drive choice, efficiency and consumer control at scale,” Cox added.
From blueprint to build
Token.io’s chief product officer Charles Damen
It was also revealed this week that Charles Damen, chief product officer at Token.io, and Rob Kerrigan, TrueLayer’s chief operating officer, have both been elected to the board of UKPI.
Damen said: “The UK Payments Initiative represents a defining moment for the payments industry.
“By formalising collaboration with leading industry players, we’re unlocking the one-click and recurring payment use cases needed to scale Pay by Bank at pace.”
Kerrigan called it “a major step forward for Pay by Bank and for the UK payments landscape”.
“Just as important, however, is the level of collaboration between banks and payment providers to turn VRP (aka ‘Bank on file’) into a viable commercial model, driven by a shared ambition to make real progress in this space,” he added.
Writing on LinkedIn, TrueLayer’s strategic accounts director, Nadja Bennett, hailed 2025 as “the year of the blueprint” and 2026 “the year of the build”.
“No more writing on the board – we’re ready to flip the switch,” she said.
