National Payment Strategy Launched

Last week, the Department of Finance launched the National Payment Strategy (NPS). This followed a lengthy consultation process where many organisations, including the SFA, made submissions to the NPS Consultation Paper. The SFA also participated in a workshop that was managed by the department.

The NPS makes it a requirement for all public services provided by Government Departments and their agencies to be available through cash. Four vision statements drive the Strategy and achieving them will move the country to a payments ecosystem in 2030 that is more resilient and has additional payment options.

The four vision statements are as follows:

1. Consumers in Ireland will be able to make use of the most modern features and functionality available for payments, while retaining options for those who prefer more traditional means of payment.
2. The Irish payments ecosystem will evolve, because of proactive participation by market players, so that the Irish payments system will keep pace with the European payments market and offer a similar experience to Irish consumers.
3. Irish consumers will have the utmost trust in the reliability of their payment methods and will freely adopt new payment methods without fear of being defrauded.
4. By 2030, there will be greater transparency and understanding of the Irish payments landscape with insights into the trends and use of payment types.

The Department of Finance noted the various stakeholder engagements (including from the SFA) stated that 'access and choice' is very important to the Irish people with fraud emerging as a significant concern. Arising from the feedback, the Department of Finance recommended the following recommendations:

1. The establishment of a cross sectoral anti-fraud forum consisting of online platforms, telecommunications firms and financial service providers to ensure the to combat fraudsters.
2. The Banking Payments Federation of Ireland have agreed to apply to be certified by the Coimisiún na Meán as a 'trusted flagger", if they are certified, they will have a privileged status for reporting illegal content such as false advertisements to online platforms.
3. All public bodies have been asked to put inbound only phone numbers on the 'do not originate list' held by the Commission for Communications Regulation, this will mean inbound only numbers (such as helplines) can't be hijacked by fraudsters to deceive consumers.
4. The commitment by the Department of Justice to prepare legislation on the shared fraud database, this has been an ask of the industry for some years now.

Details of the National Payment Strategy here.

For questions on this topic, please contact SFA Public Affairs Lead, Jonathan McDade - Tel: 01 605 1688 or Email: jonathan.mcdade@sfa.ie.