Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether, further to his Department's consultation on the Modernising Payment Services Regulation, his Department has assessed the specific risks associated with the use of facial recognition technology by banks and payment service providers.

Technology has a central role in the financial services sector's future success. The UK is creating an environment where firms, including banks and payment service providers, can safely adopt new innovations, including facial recognition technology.

To support the delivery of the Government’s vision for a trusted, world leading payments ecosystem delivered on next generation technology, the Government has consulted on proposals to modernise payment services regulation. This sought views on how the current regulation for payment services and electronic money needs to be updated to account for new innovations in the payments landscape, whilst ensuring strong consumer protections. The Government is currently considering responses to this consultation.

As part of this consultation, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to reforming the payment’s authentication regulations relating to Strong Customer Authentication in the Payment Services Regulations 2017. This will enable the Financial Conduct Authority to replace the existing requirements and make more outcomes-based rules about payments authentication.