Digital Wallets Regulation & Compliance: A Bitesized Guide

Introduction

Digital wallets have moved from a ‘watch this space’ topic into a fast-moving area of UK regulation. In the last year, the CMA has designated Apple and Google’s mobile platforms with Strategic Market Status and is already pursuing commitments and potential interventions linked to digital wallet competition - especially around NFC access, interoperability and default choice architecture.

At the same time, payments regulation is being streamlined, with the planned consolidation of the PSR into the FCA, and the FCA has updated its approach to contactless/SCA exemptions in ways that affect wallet enabled payment journeys and fraud controls.

Overlaying this, the UK’s cryptoasset regime is progressing quickly (stablecoin issuance and crypto custody proposals, and the Bank of England’s work on systemic stablecoins), while the government is also developing GOV.UK Wallet for digital credentials.

This bitesize webinar will connect these strands into a practical ‘what changed, why it matters and what to do now’ briefing so that you can understand the impact on product design, contracting, compliance and risk as digital wallets become even more central to UK payments and identity.

What You Will Learn

This short webinar will cover the following:

• How UK regulators now ‘divide up’ wallet issues between digital markets/competition intervention (CMA) and financial services regulation (FCA/Bank of England/HMT), and why that split matters for sequencing and stakeholder management
• How the planned PSR and FCA consolidation could affect engagement strategy, supervision touchpoints and regulatory messaging on payment system competition issues relevant to wallets
• What the FCA’s changes on contactless/SCA exemptions mean for authentication design, transaction monitoring expectations and consumer communications in wallet driven payment flows
• Where ‘wallet business models’ sit on a spectrum, from pass through wallets to stored value/e money wallets, and how safeguarding reforms raise operational and governance expectations for the latter
• What is changing for crypto wallets and custody: the direction of UK regulated activities for stablecoins/crypto custody and the FCA’s trajectory towards final rules
• How government credential wallets (GOV.UK Wallet) may intersect with commercial wallet ecosystems, identity verification use cases and NFC enabled presentation models

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Friday 6th November 2026

Alternatively, you can gain access to this webinar and 2,300+ others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.