The UK Payments Initiative (UKPI), a new industry-owned scheme, launched Wave 1 of commercial Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) on 2 June 2026, the first new UK payment scheme since Faster Payments in 2008.
- 31 firms, including major banks, card networks and Open Banking fintechs, funded and established UKPI
- Wave 1 targets roughly 75% UK current-account coverage at launch
- Pricing runs on a single, fixed pence-per-transaction fee, set for around five years, charged to the payment provider rather than the customer
Unlike sweeping VRP, which only moves money between a customer’s own accounts, commercial VRP lets a customer authorise ongoing payments to a real business, replacing Direct Debit and card-on-file for the sectors covered.
Wave 1 focuses on utilities, telecoms and rail, regulated financial services, e-money institutions, government bodies and registered charities, all lower-risk use cases before Wave 2 opens general e-commerce later in 2026.
For utilities and government bodies, this means variable-amount billing without a card on file. For charities, donor-set recurring giving with real bank authentication. For e-money platforms, direct account top-ups.
Finexer currently supports sweeping VRP in production. As commercial VRP’s rulebook and bank coverage mature through 2026, we’re building toward it, so platforms won’t need to re-architect when Wave 2 lands.
Read the full breakdown:Commercial VRP & UKPI – Open Banking Tracker
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About the Author
The Finexer Team is a collective of fintech engineers, payments specialists, and Open Banking experts working on financial infrastructure for UK businesses. Finexer builds API-driven solutions that allow companies to access real-time bank data, initiate Pay by Bank payments, and integrate financial services directly into their products.