Explanatory note

These Regulations approve a scale of fees which may be charged by the Bank of England to operators of recognised payment systems, and to service providers in relation to those payment systems.

The Bank of England supervises recognised payment systems and specified service providers, amongst other entities, in order to exercise its functions of protecting and enhancing the stability of the financial system.

The Bank of England may charge an annual supervision fee to an operator of a recognised payment system, or to a service provider in relation to a recognised payment system. This supervision fee may not exceed £760,000 per firm per system in any one year period.

In addition to this annual supervision fee, the Bank of England may also charge occasional ad-hoc fees to recover additional supervisory costs, required by one-off or significant activities beyond the ordinary, up to a maximum of £500,000 per firm per system in any one year period.

In all cases, the Bank of England may only charge fees to recover its own costs arising out of supervising recognised payment systems and specified service providers.

A de minimis impact assessment has been carried out and concluded that there may be some minor administrative costs for the Bank of England and for the operators of recognised payment systems to whom it charges fees. The impact assessment also concluded that on aggregate the charging of fees would shift the financial impact from one type of firm to another, such that the net impact on business would be zero. A hard copy can be obtained by writing to James Evans, Banking & Credit Team, HM Treasury at 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.