Section 68 of the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 (c. 33) (“the Act”) enables representative bodies to make a complaint to the Payment Systems Regulator (“the Regulator”) established under the Act that a feature or a combination of features of a market in the United Kingdom for services provided by payment systems is, or appears to be, significantly damaging the interests of service users. Section 69 of the Act requires the Regulator to publish a response to such a complaint.

Only representative bodies which have been designated by the Treasury may make a complaint under section 68 of the Act. The Treasury may only designate bodies which appear to them to represent the interests of service users, and must publish criteria to be applied in determining whether to make or revoke a designation. The criteria were published on the Treasury’s website on 28th September 2015 and can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/super-complainants-for-the-payment-systems-regulator. A hard copy of the criteria may be obtained by writing to the Banking and Credit Team, HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ.

This Order is the first order designating representative bodies which may make a complaint under section 68 of the Act. The Order designates the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, Consumers’ Association, the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, National Federation of Self Employed and Small Businesses and Age UK as representative bodies which may make a complaint under section 68 of the Act. The designation of these bodies takes effect from 1st April 2016.

An impact assessment has not been produced for this Order as no significant impact on the costs of business or the voluntary sector is foreseen.