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Published date: 9 September 2024

FCA consults on “reasonable grounds” for delaying payments

The FCA is consulting on updating its guidance in its “approach” document for payment services and e-money firms to support proposed amendments to the PSRs that will allow PSPs to delay making payment transactions where they have reasonable grounds to suspect fraud or dishonesty.

So far, the Treasury has merely published its proposals in a draft statutory instrument (we reported on this in March) but the FCA expects the final regulations to be laid in due course.

It is clear that the new regulations will not oblige PSPs to delay payments but will allow them to adopt a risk-based approach so they can decide the best course of action. The FCA wants to support this by amending the guidance to make sure PSPs have clear information about how to implement and apply the law and take a proportionate approach. The FCA wants to help PSPs understand:

  • when and how they should consider whether to delay an outbound payment transaction, and when to tell customers about these;

  • how PSPs should