UK adopts European approach to SWIFT sanctions over Russia

Brexit-Watch article where this piece was originally published

Published on 7 March 2022

The UK’s financial sanctions over the Ukraine invasion fall well short of cutting Russia off SWIFT, maxing out on the usual self-congratulatory hyperbole whilst opening up significant risk. When we should be distinguishing our PR approach from that of the Kremlin, we instead get […]

Scholz needs a SWIFT decision – cut Russia off or lose American bank support for the Eurosystem

What is SWIFT? Screenshot of its homepage

Published on 26 February 2022

As already published on Facts4EU and Brexit-Watch

It has been reported that Chancellor Scholz has rejected the proposal that Russia be cut off from the SWIFT system as a punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. The Guardian has disseminated misinformation that it would anyway do little […]

There’s a cost-of-living crisis but hey, let’s save football clubs at taxpayers’ expense?!?

First published on brexit-watch.org

Published on 14 February 2022

Doubts have recently been raised about the financial competence of those who manage the national finances on behalf of all of us. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has – belatedly some would say – come under fire for the losses to fraud through his Bounce Back Loans scheme: the […]

Architect of Test and Trace turns to reorganising UK’s payment systems

This article as it appeared on CommentCentral on 4 August 2021

Published on 4 August 2021

A certain David Pitt, fresh from his triumphs as Chief Operating Officer of Test and Trace, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Pay.UK, the company responsible for the UK’s main payment systems.

This is not a joke, although the timing […]

UK’s New Payments Architecture now to be a bungalow

Title page of PSR’s latest emission on the scope and tendering process for NPA

Published on 30 July 2021

What started out as a Temple of Solomon to revolutionise the UK’s payment systems will now be reduced to a more manageable bungalow-sized development. Multiple layers collapse down to one.

The
UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), who started this show […]

Comparison table of UK Finance Report – “Future-ready payments 2030: a dynamic, purposeful and united agenda for the UK”, February 2021

UK Finance’s report on the future of UK payments

Published on 9 February 2021

We have compiled a comparison table between the plans for UK payments as foreseen by:

UK Finance’s “Future-ready payments 2030: a dynamic, purposeful and united agenda for the UK”, of February 2021; The Payment Strategy Forum’s “A Payments Strategy for the 21st century: putting […]