The U.K. government is selecting a provider for the GOV.UK Pay national payment system, which will enable the use of bank cards and open banking APIs.
The Government Digital Service (GDS), part of the U.K. Cabinet Office, launched a tender to choose a payment provider for the GOV.UK Pay platform. Under the contract, the provider will be responsible for processing debit and credit card payments and integrating open banking into the payment system.
GOV.UK Pay is a unified government payment system that allows citizens to pay for various public services online and over the phone. It serves central government agencies, local authorities, the police, the NHS, and other public organizations in the U.K. Since its launch in 2016, GOV.UK Pay processed over 94 million transactions totaling £6 billion.
According to the official announcement, the contract is valued at £49.2 million (excluding VAT) and will run from July 2025 to July 2028, with two optional 12-month extensions. Requests to participate will be accepted until March 19, 2025, and the final list of participants will be announced on April 2, 2025.
The initiative aims to streamline payment processes in the public sector, reduce administrative costs, and enhance the convenience of payments for citizens. In the long run, the project is expected to improve accessibility to public service payments while ensuring broader integration with global payment systems.
In October 2024, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), in collaboration with the Bank of England (BoE), launched the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), a platform for exploring DLT-based systems and testing the issuance and trading of tokenized securities and other TradFi assets in a controlled environment.
