UK payments leaders are signalling a clear preference for modernising around the infrastructure already in place rather than starting again from scratch, according to new research from CI&T.
Its survey of 350 payments leaders shows 85 per cent believe the next phase of modernisation should work with existing infrastructure, rising to 98 per cent among executive and strategic leaders. Support was spread across selective replacement, parallel running, updated data standards and targeted integration, suggesting the industry is looking for a phased transition rather than a single wholesale rebuild.
The findings come as the UK moves from setting out its ambitions for payments reform towards deciding how the next generation of retail payments infrastructure will be delivered.
CI&T’s report, From Vision to Delivery, The Choices That Will Define UK Payments Reform, was published as the Retail Payments Infrastructure Board’s consultation on the design of the future infrastructure closed on 11 September.
Support is high, but confidence is more measured
Eighty-two per cent of respondents support the government’s National Payments Vision, published in 2024, which set out plans to improve innovation, competition and security across UK payments. Yet only 29% said they were very confident in how the programme would work.
Communication also emerged as a near-universal concern, with 349 of the 350 people surveyed expecting problems. The delivery roadmap and its milestones topped the list of concerns at 33%. How the programme fits alongside other regulation and what testing, migration and readiness will require of participants were each cited by 30%.
Young Pham, global head of financial services AI at CI&T, said: “The UK has reached the stage of payments reform where intent has to become delivery.”
He added that the gap between general and firm confidence pointed to the areas where the industry wanted greater clarity, including milestones, responsibilities, readiness requirements and the route from today’s infrastructure to the system the UK ultimately wants to build.
No single route dominates
While respondents strongly favoured building around existing infrastructure, there was no clear consensus on one technical route. Full replacement of selected components received the most support at 30%, but parallel running, modernised data standards, new testing and assurance processes and targeted integration all came within two percentage points.
Testing attracted much stronger agreement, with 82% saying robust testing should take place before changes go live. The figures point towards a programme built from a combination of approaches rather than a single cutover from old infrastructure to new.
Governance divides executives and product teams
The research also uncovered a sizeable gap in how different groups view governance. Every executive and strategic leader surveyed rated clear governance as important to delivery. Among product and innovation leaders, that fell to 59 per cent.
CI&T identified governance as one of five areas it believes the programme needs to settle early. Its recommendations include publishing a roadmap participants can plan against, setting out who makes decisions and how issues are escalated, and combining selective replacement with parallel running and targeted integration.
Payments leaders look to Brazil
Brazil’s Pix system also featured heavily in the research, with 97 per cent of respondents saying the UK could learn from its rollout.
Participants highlighted how organisations were brought into the programme and how implementation issues were addressed. Among executive and strategic leaders, a third also wanted to understand which elements of the Brazilian approach the UK should avoid copying.
Pham said CI&T’s experience working on Pix in Brazil, as well as Project Nemo in the UK, showed the importance of decisions made early in large-scale infrastructure programmes.
“Participants brought in early remain invested through the difficult stretches, accountability agreed in advance holds under pressure, and testing against realistic conditions catches the problems that matter before customers do,” he said.
The research was conducted by Censuswide between 17 and 25 June 2026 among 350 respondents from banks, fintechs and payment service providers, mid-market corporates, regulators and public authorities.
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