Welcome to Debt Matters, the UK debt collection and credit control podcast where we turn the biggest stories into practical takeaways for anyone chasing cashflow. Today: Mastercard has hired Sir Jon Thompson to chair Vocalink, right as the Bank of England prepares decisions around the UK’s next-generation payments platform.

What happened

Mastercard is strengthening its position in the UK payments infrastructure conversation by appointing Sir Jon Thompson—a high-profile former senior public sector leader as chair of Vocalink, Mastercard’s UK payments business. The move is widely seen as part of Vocalink’s push to win a major contract linked to developing a new UK payments platform focused on account-to-account transfers.

Vocalink already underpins critical rails like Bacs, Faster Payments, and LINK.

Why this m ...