BOE Seeking to Bypass Cards in Payments Revamp, Breeden Says (1)

The Bank of England is looking at cutting out card payments to reduce retail transaction costs by enabling direct bank transfers or the use of tokenised deposits and stablecoins.

Sarah Breeden, the deputy governor for financial stability, said the central bank wants “UK consumers to have the option to pay retailers in-store or online directly out of their bank accounts as a complement to doing so via card schemes.”

Doing so would “provide valuable competition” and potentially reduce the costs faced by merchants to accept card payments, Breeden said in a speech on Monday. She said the average cost ...