Senior UK banking executives are examining the creation of a domestic payments company to reduce reliance on US card networks Visa and Mastercard, amid concerns that geopolitical tensions could expose vulnerabilities in Britain’s financial infrastructure.
A meeting chaired by Barclays’ UK chief executive, Vim Maru, is scheduled to bring together City funders prepared to underwrite the costs of a new payments entity. The initiative, described as City-funded and government-backed, has been under discussion for several years. Recent threats by US President Donald Trump towards Nato allies have intensified debate about the risks of overdependence on American-owned payment systems.
According to a 2025 report by the UK’s Payment Systems Regulator, around 95% of UK card transactions are processed via Visa and Mastercard. Industry executives have warned that any disruption to these schemes would severely affect the UK economy, given the extent to which card payments dominate retail and commercial transactions. One executive familiar with the project told the Guardian that the country requires a sovereign payments system to mitigate such exposure.
The proposed structure would not exclude Visa or Mastercard, both of which are expected to be represented at the meeting. However, any new company would be led by major UK financial institutions and payment bodies, including Santander UK, NatWest, Nationwide, Lloyds Banking Group, the ATM network Link and Coventry Building Society.
Joe Garner, former Nationwide chief executive and author of a 2023 independent review on payments, said the need for domestic capability predates current political developments. He argued that strengthening national payments infrastructure remains necessary irrespective of recent events.
The discussions come as payment sovereignty has become a broader policy theme across Europe, where initiatives such as a digital euro are being positioned as alternatives to non-European systems. For UK banks, the debate centres on operational resilience, strategic autonomy and the long-term governance of critical financial infrastructure in an increasingly fragmented geopolitical environment.
