The Payment Systems Regulator was doing vital work on reducing unfair card fees that are hammering retail. Now the FCA must pick up where it left off, says Tom Ironside

In their recently published report into scheme and processing card fees, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) recently found that “increasing fees impacts on UK businesses’ ability to invest and grow.”

They’re right. The BRC’s annual payments survey showed that UK card fees have increased year-on-year for over six years, with retailers spending £1.6bn on card fees in 2023. These rises have happened without justification from the card schemes leading the PSR to conclude that there is a “lack of competition in the UK payments market.”

The government has started to slash what it calls “red tape” and as a part of that policy has decided to absorb the PSR into the

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