trending
Senior executives from Britain’s largest lenders will convene this week to advance plans for a domestic card network alternative to the global card schemes that dominate UK commerce.
A sovereign card network
The meeting, chaired by Vim Maru of Barclays, marks the first formal step towards establishing a nationally backed payments rail designed to operate alongside — and if necessary independently from — US-owned networks.
The urgency reflects a shifting geopolitical climate.
Roughly 95 per cent of UK card transactions currently run through Visa and Mastercard, according to the Payment Systems Regulator.
As cash usage continues its structural decline, reliance on two overseas operators has evolved from a commercial convenience into a strategic vulnerability.
Recent rhetoric from Donald Trump, including threats directed at NATO allies, has sharpened anxieties that payments infrastructure could become entangled in diplomatic disputes.
While few expect an abrupt disconnection, policymakers are increasingly alert to tail risks.
Russia’s experience following US sanctions — which saw Visa and Mastercard suspend operations — remains a cautionary case study.
Resilience, Not Retaliation
The UK’s response, however, is notably pragmatic.
Rather than seeking to displace the incumbents, the proposed entity — provisionally known as DeliveryCo — is designed as a resilience layer.
Both Visa and Mastercard are participating in the funding group, alongside Santander UK, NatWest, Nationwide Building Society, Lloyds Banking Group, Link and Coventry Building Society.
The initiative has been gestating for years, tied to broader ambitions to modernise account-to-account infrastructure and reduce systemic concentration risk.
Sarah Breeden of the Bank of England has framed the project as a means of adding “extra resilience” amid evolving cyber and operational threats.
Likewise, Joe Garner, who led a 2023 independent payments review, argues that renewal was overdue irrespective of political developments.
In that sense, the sovereign payments debate intersects with a longer-running question: should critical financial plumbing remain predominantly foreign-owned?
A 2030 Horizon
City backers will now determine DeliveryCo’s governance structure, funding model and executive leadership.
The central bank is expected to provide technical blueprints next year, with operational launch targeted for 2030.
The ambition is not a British equivalent of China’s UnionPay nor an overtly protectionist project.
Instead, it reflects a sober recalibration of risk management in an era when financial infrastructure is inseparable from geopolitics.
Visa and Mastercard have welcomed competition publicly, emphasising their long-standing commitment to the UK market.
Yet the creation of a parallel domestic rail signals a subtle shift in mindset: payments are no longer viewed solely as commercial utilities, but as instruments of national resilience.
In an economy where digital transactions underpin nearly every retail interaction, sovereignty in payments has moved from abstract policy debate to strategic imperative.
Comments