On September 1, 2015, Payments UK, the trade group representing the payments industry in the UK, published a voluntary code of conduct setting out standards of best practice aiming to improve indirect access to UK payment systems for payment service providers and setting out the responsibilities of indirect access providers who subscribe to the code. The code was developed further to a policy statement published by the UK Payment Systems Regulator in March 2015 and in association with the PSR and the industry's primary indirect access providers, which are Barclays Bank plc, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and the Royal Bank of Scotland plc. These four banks intend to subscribe to the code by September 30, 2015 and others may subscribe from September 1, 2015 via self-certification. The code commitments include: (i) entitlement to an agreement for the supply of indirect access; (ii) communication of important information such as technical specifications, security access requirements, operation, availability and service performance levels; and (iii) management and safeguarding of the supply of services, for example, when a party decides to terminate the agreement or to migrate services to become a direct participant in a UK payment system.
The Code of Conduct is available at:
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