UK Banks Launch Rival Payment System to Challenge Visa, Mastercard

Shares in Visa and Mastercard have fallen after major UK banks announced plans to create their own domestic payments infrastructure.

The UK Payments Delivery Company (PDC), a newly formed entity, will launch an equity raise on Tuesday with the goal of securing approximately £50 million from industry participants including banks, lenders, and payment services providers.

The funding will finance the PDC through 2028 and cover its incorporation and mobilization stages. A search for a chief executive for the new company is already underway.

This development represents a potential challenge to Visa's () and Mastercard's () dominance in the UK payments market, as Britain's largest banks move to create their own payments infrastructure.