HM Treasury has launched a consultation on plans to widen the Bank of England’s supervisory fee regime to cover systemic digital settlement asset service providers and raise the caps on the fees the Bank can charge, citing rising costs and the growing complexity of the UK payments sector.
The July 2026 consultation says the fee framework needs updating to reflect the expansion of the Bank’s remit under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, which brought systemic stablecoin issuers and related service providers into scope of Part 5 of the Banking Act 2009. The Treasury says updating the regulations now would allow the Bank to recover supervisory costs “at the point at which one is recognised by HM Treasury”, and provide early clarity to firms that may become systemic.
The Government is proposing to increase the annual cap on supervision fees from £760,000 to £1.7m per recognised system or service provider. According to the consultation, the Bank’s costs now exceed the 2018 cap due to greater operational resilience work, specialist resource requirements and an expected rise in policy activity linked to payments innovation. The Bank has separately signalled plans to introduce a third, lower fee category for less systemic systems to support new entrants.
The cap on Special Project Fees would rise from £500,000 to £650,000 to reflect inflation since 2018 and anticipated future cost pressures. These fees are levied infrequently and only when the Bank considers that events require additional supervisory work.
The consultation closes on 31 August 2026, with responses invited from payment system operators, DSA service providers and other stakeholders. The Treasury says feedback will inform final decisions on updating the fee regime and adjusting the caps applied to entities supervised under Part 5.
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