Understanding Certainty of Fate in Faster Payments

Summary

The episode explains Certainty of Fate (CoF) – the need for clear, timely confirmation of success or failure for UK account‑to‑account (A2A) payments – and why it’s vital for merchants, consumers and payment providers. It outlines key challenges, including legacy Faster Payments System design, confusion around "qualified acceptances," misaligned rules and incomplete use of Open Banking status codes. Pay.UK and Open Banking Limited discuss industry actions such as clarifying FPS rules, strengthening Open Banking messaging via the cVRP agreement, and guiding merchants toward instant‑posting accounts. Ongoing collaboration aims to deliver a consolidated CoF report to regulators by Q1 2026.