Industry Standards

Standards are an essential component of banking operations across the entire financial supply chain; they form the foundation for thousands of payments made each day. Only via the use of standards can the industry achieve high levels of efficiency and operational certainty.

Financial supply chains are often global and involve many participants from a range of different geographical locations. Therefore the development of industry standards can be challenging and at times quite complex. It involves a lot of dialogue to achieve consensus, ensuring that key business requirements are catered for. Indeed in the past 10 years the advent and increasing penetration into commercial operations, of new technology has also provided a catalyst for new innovative advancements. This has lead to recognised opportunity for the industry to migrate away for legacy technology and standards to new innovative methods of operating. However standards remain a cornerstone for industry collaboration.

Benefits of standardisation include 1) lower processing costs; and, 2) simplified entry criteria for new participants, 3) improved resilience and integrity.   Common standards are of vital importance to all parties in the payment chain, not merely to Payment Service Providers.

The Standards Unit is a recognised centre of expertise in payment and related standards actively engaging in a wide range of forums at national, European and international levels.  

Further Information:

• Our Role
• How To Obtain a UK Payments Standard
• Issuer Identification Number
• Registered Identifier Number (10000 Terminal IDs)
• Registered Identifier Number - part of the Application identifier under 7816-5
• Registered Identifier Number - Identification of Integrated Circuit Manufacturers (7816-6)
• Standards Glossary
• Contact the Standards Unit