UK payments industry backs the National Payments Vision, but only 29% are very confident it will work, finds CI&T research
More than four in five (82%) UK payments leaders back the government’s plan to overhaul the UK’s payment systems, but only 29% are very confident in how it will work. That’s according to From Vision to Delivery, The Choices That Will Define UK Payments Reform, new research among 350 payments leaders released today by CI&T, an AI and tech acceleration partner.
Confidence climbs to 95% among those in executive and strategic leadership positions, but 349 of the 350 payments leaders surveyed expect communication problems around the programme. The delivery roadmap and its milestones top their concerns at 33%, followed by how the programme fits with other regulations and what testing, migration and readiness will demand of participants, both at 30%.
The National Payments Vision, published by HM Treasury in 2024, aims to rebuild the infrastructure behind everyday payments, with more competition, stronger security and greater choice for consumers and businesses. Nearly two years on, CI&T’s new report finds an industry that knows exactly what it wants settled first.
The report launches as the Retail Payments Infrastructure Board, chaired by the Bank of England, closes its consultation on the design of the UK’s next-generation payments infrastructure this week (11 September 2026). While that consultation focuses on what should be built, CI&T’s research asked payments leaders how they expect it to be delivered.
“The UK has reached the stage of payments reform where intent has to become delivery,” said Young Pham, Global Head of Financial Services AI at CI&T. “That gap between broad confidence and firm confidence gives us a useful indication of where the industry wants greater clarity: milestones, responsibilities, readiness requirements and the route between today’s infrastructure and the system the UK wants to build.”
Key findings at a glance:
- 82% back the National Payments Vision – only 29% are very confident
- 349 of 350 expect communication problems, led by the delivery roadmap
- 85% say modernisation must work with existing infrastructure, rising to 98% among executive and strategic leaders
- 82% want robust testing before any change goes live
- 100% of those in executive and strategic leadership roles rate clear governance as important, against 59% of product and innovation leaders
- 97% see lessons for the UK in Brazil’s Pix
Build around what is already running
Some 85% say modernisation must work with the infrastructure already serving the UK market, rising to 98% among executive and strategic leaders. No single route dominates: full replacement of selected components leads at 30%, with parallel running, modernised data standards, new testing and assurance processes and targeted integration all within two percentage points. Robust testing before changes go live tops the continuity measures at 82%.
Executives and product teams see different programmes
Every executive and strategic leader surveyed rated clear governance important to delivery. Only 59% of product and innovation leaders – the people who will build on the new infrastructure – said the same.
What Brazil can teach the UK
Nearly all (97%) see lessons for the UK in Brazil’s Pix, the instant payment system that now reaches around 93% of the country’s adult population, above all in how participants were brought in and how implementation problems were solved. A third of executive and strategic leaders also want to know which lessons should not be copied at all.
“Our work implementing Pix’s payments infrastructure at national scale in Brazil, and with Project Nemo in the UK, has shown that decisions made early in a programme carry through into the live service,” said Pham. “Participants brought in early remain invested through the difficult stretches, accountability agreed in advance holds under pressure, and testing against realistic conditions catches the problems that matter before customers do.”
From Vision to Delivery sets out five decisions the programme must settle early to be a success:
- Publish a roadmap participants can plan against
- Modernise through selective replacement, parallel running and targeted integration
- Decide who makes decisions and how issues escalate, before problems emerge at scale
- Build inclusion from policy and design through to post-launch monitoring
- Bring together large-scale delivery experience, international programme learning and UK market knowledge
The full report is available at https://ciandt.com/uk/en-gb/report/vision-delivery.