Fintech AccessPay delivers UK Payments Myth-Busting Event to North East businesses with Barclays Eagle Lab

North East businesses have had a series of myths about the UK payments landscape debunked in a marry-up between Barclays Eagle Labs and Northern fintech AccessPay.

The Dispelling Payment Myths event at TusPark Newcastle Barclays Eagle Labs included speakers from across the finance and technology sectors, explaining how the evolution of the UK payment landscape will create both challenges and opportunities for businesses in the region.

Industry transformations such as Open Banking and the New Payments Architecture were discussed, with the region’s businesses learning how these developments will impact payment both them and their customers in the future.

High on the agenda was the New Payments Architecture (NPA), a conceptual model for the future development of the UK’s shared retail payment infrastructure, representing the biggest change to the way payments are processed in the UK for half a century.

The NPA seeks to ensure that payments can be made safely whilst encouraging innovation and unlocking new business opportunities such as the smarter use of banking and payment data and the creation of new transactional services. With improvements expected to be seen by users throughout 2019, the full NPA programme is forecast to be fully implemented in 2021.

AccessPay CEO, Anish Kapoor: “With the changes coming to the UK payments landscape there is understandably some confusion and worry about what it means for businesses.

“We came to the North East to give people there, especially those in financial roles, an opportunity to hear from some industry experts and dispel some of the myths being propagated.

“There are some challenges ahead of course, but there are also plenty of opportunities and we want to help fill in some of the gaps and demonstrate that these changes have plenty of benefits and advantages.”

Echoing Kapoor’s thoughts, Andrew Dixon, Eco System Manager at Barclays Eagle Labs said:

“The payments landscape is changing fast and with those changes comes, excitement, innovation, nerves and concerns. The more informed people are the more they realise there is less to fear and the adoption of these new techniques and practices will fundamentally change how they interact with money. We supported this event in our Eagle Lab to help demystify the payments landscape.”