Minister McGrath holds workshop on future of payments

The Minister for Finance Michael McGrath TD earlier this week (1 May) addressed a workshop of stakeholders to the National Payments Strategy (NPS) at the Central Bank of Ireland.

This workshop was to present the findings of the recent public consultation on a new NPS for Ireland and to discuss next steps for the project. The key aim of the workshop was to hear from all involved in the payments system, including civil society.

Over sixty organisations, firms, membership bodies and civil society groups attended the event, most of whom had made a submission to the consultation process.

Addressing the workshop Minister McGrath said:

"A robust and reliable payment system is important for both consumers and businesses alike. It is my firm belief that the payments system must serve all its users in an inclusive way. In so doing it allows people to conduct their daily lives in a way that is convenient and familiar for them."

Digitalisation is bringing benefits to consumers making many services more accessible. However cash will be an integral part of our lives for many years to come and ensuring that consumers can both access and use cash as needed is a priority for me.

Attendees were asked how issues like payment choice could be addressed in a fair way and what could be done to limit the negative impacts of fraud on consumers and businesses, all whilst promoting innovation in payments.

Reflecting on the discussion during the event the Minister said:

"From the discussion we held with a broad range of stakeholders it is clear to me that there is an important role for the public sector in supporting both cash acceptance and seeking a stronger focus on inclusion across all payment types and this is an outcome to which I am fully committed."

Following this event, the Department of Finance will develop the strategy and the identify actions. This will be published by the end of 2024.

Queries can be sent to [email protected]

Notes to editor

Terms of Reference for a NPS were published in June 2023 and the development of the NPS is led by the Department of Finance. The last national policy in this area was set out in the National Payments Plan 2013 and, since this time, the payments landscape has changed significantly in Ireland.

This summary report is the synopsis of all the submissions received by the NPS team and is not representative of the views of the Department of Finance and are unless otherwise attributed, the responsibility of the NPS team. It should be noted that this document is an interpretation of all submissions received by the NPS team and may not fully reflect the entirety of each submission, nor does it preclude the strategy from adopting actions recommended by stakeholders not referenced in this document.

The National Payments Strategy

The final strategy will set out a roadmap for the future evolution of the entire payments system, taking account of developments in digital payments, cash usage and how future changes should be made to the legislative criteria relating to access to cash.

A key element of the work is to examine and analyse fraud, which is a critical issue and something that was not considered at the time of the NPP ten years ago. While much of this area is governed by EU legislation, it is important that the NPS examines and analyses payment fraud to see if further domestic measures can be identified to prevent fraud. On a related matter, work on financial literacy is already underway within the Department on this issue that was covered in a separate recommendation of the Retail Banking Review.

Within the payment roadmap, the NPS will also look at crypto-assets, instant payments, open banking, and what new data needs to be collected on the payments landscape.

Finally, the NPS is looking at two inter-related issues: cash access and cash acceptance.

On access to cash , it will consider the likely evolution of cash usage and how the criteria for reasonable access to cash that will be set out in the upcoming access to cash legislation should evolve as cash usage changes in the future. The legislation will calibrate the criteria to ensure that cash access will remain at about June 2023 levels, initially.

A related issue concerns the need to ensure that cash can be accepted as a means of payment where possible. It will, therefore, look at the acceptance of cash issue and consider, inter alia, if legislation should be introduced to require certain sectors or sub-sectors to accept or facilitate the acceptance of cash; and if it should be policy to require the public service to accept or facilitate the acceptance of cash.

All the submissions received in respect of the CP will be published on the Department of Finance website in parallel with the final strategy.

List of attendee organisations