Consultation outcome

Special administration regime for payment and settlement systems

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government
This consultation has concluded

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Special administration regime for payment and settlement systems: summary of responses

Detail of outcome

This document details the summary of responses to the consultation on the special administration regime for payment and settlement systems that was published in April 2013.


Original consultation

Summary

This consultation seeks the views of industry and all interested stakeholders on the proposal to introduce a special administration regime for payment and settlement systems.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

On Thursday 25 April, the government published a consultation on a special administration regime for payment and settlement systems.

Payment and settlement systems are integral to the efficient operation of the financial system, processing transactions worth hundreds of billions of pounds a day. Any interruption of their services would likely cause severe disruption to the wider financial sector and the real economy.

As things stand, in the unlikely event that the operator of a systemically important payment or settlement system were to become insolvent (i.e. unable to repay its debts) it would likely go into a normal administration procedure. Here the firm would be managed in the interest of its creditors, without concern for implications for the wider economy. Under these circumstances, crucial payment and settlement services could be threatened.

The government proposes that a “special” administration regime should be in place for systemically important payment and settlement systems, under which the overarching objective of the administration would be to maintain the firm’s critical services. This would ensure that even in insolvency the firm would continue to provide the required infrastructure, until the firm recovers or an alternative source of provision is available.

This is the latest step in the government’s work to ensure that the failure of a single financial institution is not allowed to put UK financial stability at risk.

Documents

Special administration regime for payment and settlement systems

Published 25 April 2013
Last updated 15 November 2013 + show all updates
  1. Summary of responses document published

  2. First published.