UKPI's commercial VRP scheme went live on 2 June 2026 — the UK's first new payment scheme since Faster Payments in 2008. Wave 1 covers regulated and trusted sectors; Wave 2 (general e-commerce) is expected in the second half of 2026.
Commercial VRP (cVRP) extends Variable Recurring Payments from "me-to-me" sweeping to paying real businesses — utilities, government, charities and, soon, e-commerce. The body that makes it work at scale is UKPI, the UK Payments Initiative: a new industry-owned scheme with a single rulebook and a shared commercial model, so providers don't have to negotiate bank-by-bank. This is the payments-led edge of UK open banking, and it is now live.
What is UKPI?
UKPI — the UK Payments Initiative — is an independent, industry-owned-and-operated company set up specifically to own and run the commercial VRP scheme. It provides the rulebook, operational standards and a shared commercial model so that every participant transacts on the same terms. Regulators have called it the first new UK payment scheme since Faster Payments launched in 2008.
UKPI emerged from work led by Open Banking Limited (OBL), but it is a separate legal entity with its own board and funding — not a rebrand of OBL. When the funding company was first announced in May 2025 the "UKPI" name had not yet been adopted; it appears in the official record from late 2025 onward.
The 31 funders
Thirty-one firms came together to fund and establish UKPI — a deliberate mix of the demand and supply sides of payments. Named participants include Nationwide, NatWest Group, Mastercard Open Banking Services, GoCardless, TrueLayer, Yapily, Token.io, Moneyhub, Plaid, obconnect and Acquired.com, alongside other banks and PISPs. That banks (the account providers who must build the rails) and fintechs (the providers who initiate payments) jointly funded the scheme is what gives it a realistic path to the ~75% current-account coverage regulators wanted at launch.
Wave 1 use cases
Wave 1 deliberately starts with lower-risk, trusted sectors before broadening to open e-commerce in Wave 2:
Utilities, telecoms & rail
Energy, water, broadband and transport bills with variable monthly amounts.
Regulated financial services
Mortgage servicers, pension administrators and similar regulated firms.
E-money institutions
Topping up and funding e-money and wallet accounts.
Government
Local and central government payments (e.g. council tax, fees).
Registered charities
Recurring donations with donor-set limits.
The commercial model: a capped, shared price
The defining feature of cVRP is its Multilateral Agreement (MLA). Instead of each fintech striking bilateral deals with each bank, UKPI sets a common, centrally managed price for initiating a cVRP. The recommended design is a single, fixed pence-per-transaction fee (not a percentage of value), charged to the payment provider rather than the consumer — because shoppers don't pay to use Direct Debit or cards, and charging them would hurt adoption.
That price is intended to be fixed for roughly five years, giving merchants and providers cost certainty. A specific published headline fee was not public at launch; the cost modelling that underpins it put a bank's per-transaction cost at around £0.02 plus a scheme/operator fee. In January 2026 the FCA and PSR said they would not, at this stage, prioritise a Competition Act investigation into this centralised pricing model — giving the scheme interim regulatory comfort to proceed.
Note: a widely quoted figure that "VRPs are 16% of payments" refers to VRP's share of open banking payments and is mostly free sweeping VRP — not commercial VRP, and not a share of all UK payments.
Sweeping VRP vs commercial VRP
| Aspect | Sweeping VRP | Commercial VRP (cVRP) |
|---|---|---|
| Who you pay | Your own accounts (me-to-me) | Third parties — billers, merchants, charities |
| Basis | CMA Order mandate (free) | UKPI scheme + MLA (priced) |
| Status | Live since 2022–2023 | Wave 1 live 2 June 2026 |
| Replaces | Manual transfers / standing orders | Direct Debit and card-on-file |
Frequently asked questions
UKPI — the UK Payments Initiative — is a new, independent, industry-owned company created to own and operate the commercial VRP scheme. It has its own rulebook, commercial model and operational standards, and is described as the first new UK payment scheme since Faster Payments launched in 2008. It grew out of work led by Open Banking Limited but is a separate entity, not an OBL rebrand.
Sources
- FCA — Open banking takes next step forward with launch of UK Payments Initiative scheme (2 Jun 2026)
- FCA / PSR — Commercial variable recurring payments: update on delivery (Dec 2025)
- Open Banking Expo — OBL announces 31 firms to fund new cVRP company (May 2025)
- Frontier Economics for OBL — The commercial model for cVRP, Wave 1 (Apr 2025)
- FCA — Regulators give clarity on open banking pricing models (20 Jan 2026)