Payments Are Changing Fast - But What Can the Industry Prove?

Payments are becoming almost invisible to consumers - but behind the tap of a phone or the press of a button sits an increasingly complex payments infrastructure.

In this Payments:Unpacked podcast, we round up the biggest stories from the last ten days and explore what they tell us about where UK payments are heading.

We look at the rise of a generation that may rarely need a PIN, Open Banking passing one billion payments and 100 billion API calls, the latest Swift security requirements, and why the conversation ahead of Sibos is shifting from “what’s next?” to “what can you prove now?”

We also unpack Vocalink’s return to profitability and its continuing role at the heart of UK payment infrastructure, before turning to two important Bank of England developments: its proposed new payments innovation objective and the decision to delay the November 2026 RTGS standards release.

Together, the stories point to a payments industry entering a new phase — one where innovation, resilience, interoperability and measurable delivery matter more than promises.

Share this episode with someone working in payments, banking or fintech, and subscribe to Payments at payments-unpacked.com.

Don’t just follow payments. Understand them.

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