Enabling Scalable, Secure Payments: Pay.UK’s Partnership with Entrust
Read how Pay.UK partnered with Entrust to modernize PKI infrastructure, enable secure onboarding, fight fraud, and scale access to the UK’s core payment systems.
ユーザープロファイル
Pay.UK is the recognized operator and standards body for the UK’s interbank retail payment systems. It provides the payments networks used by the Bacs Payment System, the Faster Payment System and the Image Clearing System that make payments secure, safe and simple for the UK’s banks and building societies, payment providers and their customers. In 2024, the value of transactions across its three core systems reached an average of £28 billion per day.
As part of its responsibility to oversee the operations of national payments infrastructure, Pay.UK strives to enhance the resilience and capabilities of its world-leading systems. It achieves this by implementing measures to eliminate or mitigate systemic risk and by fostering competition and innovation within the market, to improve access and support the development of new payment methods and technologies.
課題
Pay.UK’s mission to create a more accessible and innovative payments infrastructure was shaped by evolving regulatory expectations. This focus on accessibility aimed to lower barriers for entry for smaller banks and new entrants.
主な課題には、次のようなものがありました。
- High cost of entry: Before 2017, joining the Faster Payment System or the Bacs Payment System required participants to build and maintain their own PKI infrastructure - a process involving significant hardware, software, compliance, and operational costs.
- Limited competition: A few large, established providers dominated the market, creating barriers for challenger banks and smaller institutions.
- Accessibility: Pay.UK aimed to make PKI services affordable and easy to adopt for new and smaller participants.
To address these challenges, Pay.UK sought a partner that could deliver secure, scalable, and cost-effective PKI services to support its evolving infrastructure needs.
ソリューション
In response, Pay.UK launched the Universal Trust Service Provider (UTSP) in 2017, offering PKI services directly to participants. UTSP operates the PKI Trust Service, providing digital certificates to payment service providers (PSPs) for secure access to the Faster Payment System and the Bacs Payment System.
Entrust has supported Pay.UK’s PKI journey for nearly a decade, evolving from a foundational provider to a Tier 1 strategic partner.
Key elements of the solution included:
- Self-service model: Reduced costs and complexity for participants
- Enabled certificate and PKI card management, onboarding, and local registry authority creation
成果
The Entrust and Pay.UK partnership has delivered measurable impact across the UK payments ecosystem.
- Broader adoption: More participants can securely access the Faster Payment System and the Bacs Payment System.
- Secure transactions: Millions of secure transactions enabled monthly.
- Support fraud prevention: Confirmation of Payee reached 2 billion checks in 2024. An average of 2 million Confirmation of Payee checks are made every day.
- Strategic support: Entrust PKI services underpin Pay.UK’s modernization goals, including improving resilience, supporting fraud prevention, and preparing for emerging threats like post-quantum cryptography.
- Future-proof security: Entrust is helping Pay.UK prepare for post-quantum cryptography and explore advanced authentication methods.
These results reflect the strength of the nearly decade-long partnership and its alignment with Pay.UK’s vision for secure, scalable, and inclusive payments.
Entrust は、PKI の領域における専門知識を活かした、安全で回復力のあるサービスを提供しています。
Craig Hartill
Payments Operations Manager, Pay.UK
将来を見据えて
Pay.UK will continue focusing on fraud prevention, operational resilience, and expanding access and innovation. Future plans include modernizing the UTSP model and further developing fraud-related service – with Entrust expected to play a key role. Entrust is also aligned with Pay.UK’s strategic cybersecurity goals, including post-quantum readiness.
Entrust remains committed to helping Pay.UK achieve its evolving business and technology objectives through continued collaboration, innovation, and trusted support.
関連製品とサービス
公開鍵暗号基盤（PKI）
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