User Forums

Part of the remit of the Payments Council is to meet the user needs of payment systems. To do this we have established three User Forums covering large corporate users, small and medium sized businesses, and consumer organisations. We also have a Charity and Voluntary Sector Liaison Group and have recently set up a vendor forum, a joint initiative with Intellect. 

To ensure transparency and a balanced debate each of these User Forums is chaired by one of the Payments Council’s independent directors. The User Forums discuss key issues and developments and offer specialist advice to the Payments Council board on a variety of payment related topics.

For example, the User Forums played an extremely important part in the consultation process on the National Payments Plan and have helped us shape the Cheque Replacement Programme.

• Large Corporate User Forum
  The large corporate User Forum is geared towards heavy volume payment users such as insurance companies, government departments, telecommunications firms, international companies, large retailers, utilities and transport companies.
• Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) User Forum
  The SME forum covers a diverse range of organisations. It includes, British Shops and Stores Association, Federation of Small Businesses, Association of British Travel Agents, Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), Association of Independent Tour Operators, and, Forum of Private Business.
• Consumer User Forum
  The consumer forum is open to organisations that represent consumers. The membership covers a wide range of consumer organisations including, Age UK, Citizens Advice, Which?, Financial Services Consumer Panel, General Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, Association of British Credit Unions Ltd, Consumer Focus, Toynbee Hall, Money Advice Trust, and, Runnymede Trust. 

For more information about participating and joining a User Forum please contact membership@paymentscouncil.org.uk. 

As participation in the User Forums is for end users, full members cannot be members of a User Forum. Also no user forum member may be employed, either in an executive or non-executive capacity by a Payment Service Provider.