UK Banks Including Barclays, Nationwide Launch Fundraising for New Payments Giant – Sky News

Britain’s largest banks are this week beginning a process to raise tens of millions of pounds to fund a new payments infrastructure company that could eventually rival Mastercard and Visa domestically, Sky News reported on Monday.

According to Sky News’ City editor Mark Kleinman, the newly formed UK Payments Delivery Company (PDC) will launch an equity-raise on Tuesday aimed at establishing the country’s future payments utility.

City sources told Sky News the fundraising would initially target around £50 million from banks, other lenders and payment services providers, financing the PDC through its incorporation and mobilisation phases until 2028. A search for a chief executive is already underway.

The move is said to mark a significant step in Britain’s effort to modernise payments infrastructure widely viewed as outdated.

Earlier reports suggested banks were seeking greater national sovereignty over UK payment systems, partly amid tensions involving former President Donald Trump and NATO allies.

However, Sky News noted that Mastercard and Visa have themselves been involved in early work on the PDC, alongside 19 companies in total—including Britain’s four biggest high street lenders and Citi, JPMorganChase, Nationwide, PayPal and Wise.

The project stems from the Treasury’s National Payments Vision, published in late 2024. Barclays executive Vim Maru has been leading the PDC’s work, liaising with the Bank of England’s Retail Payments Infrastructure Board, which is due to deliver a blueprint for future payments infrastructure in the first quarter of next year.

A PDC spokesperson said the initiative would “deliver a system that is resilient, innovative and ready for the future.”