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Salary About the PSR
How payments work affects the society we live in; the challenges faced by the vulnerable; how likely we are to fall victim to fraud; and how easily we can manage our money.
Payments underpin our economy.
Behind these payments are several important payment systems. We rely on these systems to support markets, facilitate competition and drive innovation.
This helps to deliver new products, find new ways to protect people from harm, and deliver services that give people and businesses more choice and control about how to pay and be paid.
We need the technology, the rules governing the use of these systems and the markets they support to all work well.
This is where the PSR plays an important role – we are the economic regulator of, and competition authority for, those systems.
We protect people and businesses and promote competition and innovation in these systems and the markets that they support.
To achieve this, we have set out in our Strategy four strategic priorities: (
https://www.psr.org.uk/publications/general/the-psr-strategy/
) - Ensure users have continued access to the payment services they rely on and support a choice of payment options
- Ensure users are sufficiently protected when using the UK's payment systems
- Promote competition between UK payment systems and the markets supported by them; protecting users where that competition is not sufficient
- Act to ensure the interbank systems provide the infrastructure, rules and incentives that foster innovation and competition in payments
Our work is high-profile and fast-moving, within a dynamic environment.
The work that you’ll be involved in every day will be about helping us to deliver our strategy, helping us to be the regulator we want to be and helping the sector to deliver outcomes that protect the interests of people and businesses, and to promote competition and innovation in payments. Our strategy sets out the need for us to continue adjusting our approach to ensure our work is directed where it will have the greatest impact.
We’re ambitious about the future and looking for people who can help us to achieve our strategic priorities.
The PSR is an independent economic regulator led by Managing Director, Chris Hemsley. We are directly accountable to Parliament and funded by the payments industry. We work closely with other regulators involved in this sector, notably the Financial Conduct Authority, the Bank of England and the Competition and Markets Authority.
Operationally we are an independent subsidiary of the Financial Conduct Authority.
About the Policy team
The Policy team is focused on delivering our strategy. You will have the opportunity to work on different aspects of policy development and analysis, project delivery and stakeholder management.
Why join the PSR?
There are so many reasons why the PSR is a great place to work! We have a great office, providing an excellent agile working environment, you will be joining a friendly team with an important role to play in the development of cutting-edge policy.
So, if you are motivated by making a difference to how we all make payments, then we are for you.
In addition, we offer a wide variety of training and learning opportunities as well as access to the FCA Academy which has a wealth of resource available to us.
We are committed to building and sustaining a diverse and inclusive workplace so that we can represent the fullest range of views and ideas. Our commitment includes disability, ethnicity, LGBT and gender identity through to mental health and social mobility issues.
As an inclusive employer, we support a hybrid and flexible approach to working so when you apply, do please indicate any requests for flexibility.
We’re delighted to offer an associate level opportunity in our policy team as we continue to grow and evolve to deliver our ambitious strategy.
We are specifically looking for candidates to a role in our scheme and processing fees market review team, which is seeking to understand if the supply of scheme and processing services is working well having regard to our competition, innovation and protection of service-users objectives.
As an Associate, you will be expected to:
- Contribute to the delivery of policy projects and analysis, independently and as part of a team. You'll also need to draft briefings to explain complex issues, often within tight timeframes
- Work as part of multi-disciplinary project teams, building relationships with policy, economist, legal and communications colleagues, delivering high quality work
- Liaise with a wide variety of stakeholders, including firms, government, other regulators, and consumer groups, to gather evidence, test policy options and explain our approach
- Present policy recommendations to PSR leadership
About you
We are looking for people to join our team who can demonstrate experience of developing policy and delivering complex policy projects- at pace. This could be in payments, but might also be wider – for example economic, regulatory or consumer policy with an emphasis on complex regulated network issues, previous involvement in a market review / study and/or an understanding of the UK’s legislative process.
We welcome applications from anyone who feels their experience meets the role expectations and essential criteria.
Minimum requirements
We’re a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.
As a minimum, you will need to be able to demonstrate:
- Direct experience of policy development within government, a regulator, consultancy, or other organisations
- Proven experience of project delivery – including ability to plan and work to deadlines, and understand risks and opportunities
Essential requirements
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to distil complex issues into succinct messages and present confidently to a variety of internal and external stakeholders
- Strong relationship building and influencing skills
- Excellent prioritisation skills with the ability to define priorities and provide a quality contribution where it is most needed
- An ability to identify and exercise judgement in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team, including economists, lawyers, payment specialists as well as other policy advisors
- An ability to take into account potentially very different views which may be conflicting, without losing sight of the overall strategic aims and objectives
Desirable requirements
- An understanding of the wider impact of regulation on consumers and businesses, and the ability to look at issues from the perspective of the payment user
- Experience of other sectors subject to economic regulation
PSR Values
All members of PSR are expected to demonstrate the PSR Values of Integrity, Unity, Engagement, Knowledge & Purpose.
In order to represent the people and organisations that we serve, we are committed to building and sustaining a diverse and inclusive workplace. Our commitment includes disability, ethnicity, LGBTQ+ and gender identity, mental health and social mobility issues.
We are proud signatories of the
Women in Finance Charter
, we hold the Level 2 Carer Confident
accreditation from Carers UK and we signed the Social Mobility Pledge
in June 2020. Useful information
- These roles are graded as Associate – Level 8
- These roles are based in London
- The roles offer a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package
- Applications close on Friday 5th April 2024
- If you are interested learning more about these roles, please contact Katie Ayling onkatie.ayling@fca.or.uk
- Want to know what it is like to work at the PSR? Check out this short videoPSR recruitment video 2022 - YouTube
Please note, applications must be submitted through our online portal. (We are unable to accept applications sent via email.)
Conflicts of interest
All applicants to the PSR are required to demonstrate that they do not have other interests likely to conflict with their responsibilities as an employee of the PSR.
You should declare any potential conflict of interest as early as possible in the selection process (via the named recruitment contact), and also disclose information or personal connections that, if appointed, might be open to misperception.
Any potential conflicts of interest will not prevent candidates going forward to interview but may, if appropriate, be explored during the interview to establish how the candidate would address the issue(s) should they be successful in their application.
For more information on conflicts please visit:
https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corporate/conflict-of-interests.pdf
This role will be based in London,
The International Quarter, Stratford
