Address 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.
Our work is high-profile and fast-moving, within a dynamic environment.
You, alongside other Senior Advisers will support the whole organisation to deliver our work effectively. In particular, by advising on how to manage our legal risks and how best to use our formal legal powers to improve outcomes for people and businesses.
Our current workplan includes taking ambitious action to prevent payment fraud, creating new markets for open banking payments to thrive, and undertaking major reviews into card fees.
We have a bold vision for the future of payments in the UK. We are looking for people who can help us to achieve our strategic priorities, which are set out in our five-year
Strategy
. 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.
What does this role involve?
As a Senior Adviser for the PSR you will be a subject matter expert, supporting the development of the strategy, policies and regulatory approach required to address significant and high-profile challenges in the payments industry.
You will advise our executive committee on strategy, policy and compliance matters.
You will interact with all teams across the PSR, having the flexibility to explore a wide variety of issues, drawing on resources across the organisation.
Senior Advisers provide crucial advice on our strategy, horizon scanning, the implications of policy decisions and our work to secure compliance with regulatory requirements.
As subject matter experts in their fields, Senior Advisers provide challenge, direction, and mentoring, helping our teams to understand what the PSR should focus on, how to analyse issues and to take decisions on how best to regulate payment systems.
We envisage that this role will be one of two Senior Advisers (the other focusing on providing competition and regulatory economics expertise).
Payment systems have a particular set of economic (and other) characteristics that create interesting regulatory challenges (often in the form of quite complex market features) that need to be addressed in order to improve the outcomes for users of payment systems.
Furthermore, payment systems and the broader payment services market are characterised by extensive use of technology, particularly IT hardware and software, and by change and innovation in the use of technology. To be effective, the PSR needs to understand this technology perspective but also the linkages with commercial pressures and market dynamics.
This is particularly evident in our work to unlock greater use of account-to-account payments, including through expansion of payments using Open Banking.
These reforms involve issues of the technical capability of infrastructure, the commercial arrangements faced by participants and the offer made to both merchants and consumers.
More generally, effective regulatory oversight requires sufficient understanding of how the underlying systems and processes work, not least where we are deciding how best to intervene to improve outcomes. Our recent work on Confirmation of Payee is a good illustration of these issues.
To further improve our ability to do this, the Senior Adviser will be an expert in payment systems with a good understanding of:
- Current and emerging payments technologies
- Open Banking and its use in account-to-account payments
- Card payments and the commercial incentives faced by schemes, issuers, and other participants in the payments ecosystem
- The payments stakeholder and regulatory environment
Given the essential nature of the sector to the UK economy and UK consumers, it is unsurprising that this is politically sensitive and high profile.
As new players and new technology change the dynamics of the sector, incentives to deliver good consumer outcomes may not always be well aligned and the PSR must address complex distributional patterns of costs and benefits – reflecting different socio-economic characteristics of consumers, their geographic location, etc.
This creates a very interesting set of challenges: analysing issues; working out where the PSR can take action which best delivers benefits; and designing regulatory interventions that effectively and efficiently deliver those benefits.
The present range of issues that the PSR is involved with include:
- The operation and renewal of the account-to-account payment systems (including the Faster Payments system) where network effects, platform economics and other barriers to entry limit direct rivalry
- Identifying and mitigating risks to consumers, such as through our work on payment fraud and access to cash
- Taking forward work to support the use of account-to-account payments (including Open Banking) in a wider range of uses, including online and in-person retail
- Investigating increases in fee levels (covering scheme and international interchange fees) set by Visa and Mastercard
- Ensuring that there is ongoing fair and reasonable access to existing payment systems
- Protecting competition in payment markets, including through the use of market investigation and competition act powers
As Senior Adviser, you will be involved from the early stages of work, helping shape our approach to strategy, analysis, policy development, thought leadership, and providing quality assurance.
You will take on a review role as the work progresses, providing challenge to ensure that the policies are rigorous, well argued and will achieve their aims.
You will support our intelligence and horizon scanning work, helping to identify future issues which may impact on payments, helping the PSR to prioritise its future work.
As a trusted adviser to the Managing Director and executive committees, you will often be involved in a variety of activities spanning the most complex and critical regulation in your area of specialism.
You will champion key pieces of analysis that will inform the PSR’s decision making and may from time to time be asked to commission, lead, and deliver such work.
Key accountabilities
As a payment Systems Specialist you will assist the PSR in fulfilling all aspects of its regulatory functions, in particular by improving our:
- Understanding of current and prospective payment systems and the linkages between these systems, how payment markets operate, and the appropriate way economic regulation should be applied to industry participants
- Application of different forms of regulatory oversight to firms, including across a diverse set of regulated entities
- Identification of emerging issues, priorities, opportunities and risks in order to inform future regulatory action
- Development of long-term strategic approaches to the reform of markets, including ways to support innovation that improves outcomes for users
- Supporting engagement with key stakeholders
The Senior Advisers attend the PSR’s Executive Committee. This role is part of the PSR’s processes for managing and mitigating risks associated with the quality of its analysis and decision-making.
If appropriate, the Senior Adviser may also be called upon to support the development of the PSR as an organisation, by providing advice and challenge to the Managing Director and the Executive Team at an organisational level.
Minimum requirements
We're a signatory to the Government's Disability Confident scheme. This means that we guarantee an interview to any disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.
- A strong knowledge and appreciation of the opportunities and challenges facing the payments industry (and the financial services industry more broadly), including those associated with the introduction of new technologies
- Expert knowledge of (a number of) the UK’s key payment systems, across cards and account-to-account and the ability to apply this knowledge to the strategic challenges facing the PSR
- A good understanding of all the environments which impact the PSR (e.g. payments and financial industry; other regulators; Government; the stakeholder environment)
Essential requirements
- Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence and gain the trust of other senior leaders and external stakeholders
- Ability to work collaboratively with teams within a multi-disciplinary environment, providing robust challenge and constructive support
- Contribute to a cohesive work environment, fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and professional development, where collaboration, mentorship and clear communication are valued
- Mindful of competing resources, effectively supporting priorities to ensure optimal allocation of time and effort
- Undisputed integrity, standing, authority and discretion
Desirable requirements
- Detailed knowledge of one or more of: Open Banking, Cards and the commercial and technical challenges associated with these ecosystems
- Strong networks across payments and/or financial services, in the UK and/or overseas
It would be helpful if the Senior Adviser had previous experience of applying their knowledge to policy making or regulatory and competition issues gained whilst working within a business within the banking and payments sectors.
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 are signatories of the Social Mobility Pledge
. As an inclusive employer, we are open to considering flexible working arrangements. While this role is already flexible, if you have a specific flexibility request, please contact our recruiter to discuss further.
Useful information
- As part of the Chair and MDs office, all Senior Advisers report to the Managing Director
- They typically working two days per week/c.90 days per year, based out of the PSR’s offices in London, in thethe Stratford Cross / Olympic Park area of Stratford
- Flexibility is expected should they be involved in particularly time critical projects
- Senior Advisers are employed on the basis of a one-year fixed term contract, which can be renewed by mutual agreement for a further year
- All Senior Advisers are paid £1,050 per day and they receive a pension allowance and accrue holidays and flexible benefits
- While Senior Advisers have access to resources across the organisation, including administrative support, they do not have any line reports.
- Applications close on Sunday 7 April 2024.
- If you are interested in learning more about the role, please contactkatie.ayling@fca.org.uk
Please note, applications must be submitted through our online portal.
(We are unable to accept applications sent via email.)
(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 role with 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
