the United Kingdom

In-store payment is overwhelmingly card-based and contactless. In 2025, 39% of all UK payments were contactless, while cash fell to 3.9 billion payments, 8% of the total, making it only the fifth most used payment method. Some 58% of adults regularly used mobile contactless payments such as Apple Pay and Google Pay in 2025. There is no domestic card scheme: cards run on Visa and Mastercard. Every bank-issued terminal has accepted contactless since January 2020, and smartphone and tablet acceptance has spread card payments among small businesses. The FCA removed the £100 contactless cap in March 2026, but most issuers have kept it for now.

Online shopping is mature. The Office for National Statistics reported that 28.3% of retail sales by value in Great Britain were made online in July 2026, and UK Finance estimated that 45.9 million people, 80% of adults, bought goods or services online in 2025. Online card spending grew 4% by volume but only 1% by value in 2025 as average basket sizes edged down. Mobile is central: 75% of adults used mobile banking in 2025 and wallet checkouts are common. Since Brexit the UK sits outside the EU VAT and customs area, so EU-based sellers must handle UK VAT and customs on shipments. UK Finance expects account-to-account payments, especially variable recurring payments (VRPs), to shape future growth.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorises and supervises payment and e-money institutions under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, including strong customer authentication (SCA) rules retained from PSD2. The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) oversees payment systems and their participants, but the government is abolishing it and moving its functions into the FCA through the Financial Services and Markets Bill introduced in May 2026. The Bank of England supervises systemic payment systems and their operators. EU passporting no longer applies, so firms need UK authorisation. Interest-free BNPL (deferred payment credit) came under FCA regulation on 15 July 2026, with lenders required to be authorised and to run affordability checks.

Account access is near universal. The World Bank Global Findex 2025 found that 99% of UK adults had an account in 2024 and 96% owned a debit card. The FCA’s Financial Lives survey estimated that 1.6% of adults (0.9 million) had no current account in 2024, down from 2.1% in 2022; unbanked adults were disproportionately young or out of work. In 2025, 91% of adults used remote banking and 75% used mobile banking, according to UK Finance.