The findings in this report reinforce a wider challenge for the payments industry: innovation needs to work for all customers, including those whose needs or circumstances may make it harder to access and use financial services.

The Payments Association’s Inclusion Working Group brings the industry together around that challenge. It provides a forum for members to share expertise, examine barriers to inclusion and consider how payments can better serve customers with different needs and circumstances.

As AI becomes more deeply embedded in payments, this work takes on greater importance. The opportunity is not simply to make existing services more efficient, but to consider how new technologies can improve access, choice and customer outcomes without creating new forms of exclusion.

This report highlights several areas where continued industry collaboration will be important. Firms need better ways to understand and measure outcomes for vulnerable customers, greater consistency in designing for changing circumstances, and accessible routes to human support when digital journeys do not work as intended.

Emerging technologies will create further questions. The growth of digital identity and increasingly sophisticated uses of AI will require firms to consider inclusion from the outset, rather than addressing accessibility only after products and services have been deployed.

No single organisation can address these challenges in isolation. Sharing approaches, evidence and practical experience across the payments ecosystem can help the industry identify what works, where gaps remain and how good practice can develop alongside innovation.

The Inclusion Working Group is an opportunity for members of The Payments Association to contribute to the industry’s work on financial inclusion, share perspectives from their organisations and help shape the discussion around more inclusive payments.

To find out more about the group and how to participate, get in touch with The Payments Association.