Purpose and scope
The Payments Academic Advisory Group (‘PAAG’) provides a forum to engage leading academics and policy thinkers from disciplines including economics, law, behavioural science technology and innovation.
Its purpose is to support informed, evidence-based discussion on the opportunities and risks shaping the future payments landscape.
The forum has no decision‑making responsibilities, does not hold a formal advisory role, and its outputs will not be binding on the Bank. The Forum will not replace the generally applicable mechanisms for consultation and engagement that the Bank operate in fulfilment of its statutory objectives.
Co-Chairs and secretariat
The PAAG is co-chaired by Heads of Division from the Bank (the ‘co-chairs’). The Bank provides the secretariat support for the PAAG (the ‘secretariat’).
Membership
Membership in the PAAG is at the invitation of the Bank. The PAAG will comprise a diverse set of knowledgeable members (‘Members’) with experience in academic fields relevant to payments, such as monetary economics, innovation theory and behavioural science. The list of disciplines of interest and the Members’ selection process can be found in Annex 1 of this Terms of Reference.
Membership is dependent on individuals having relevant expertise to be able to contribute to the discussions and commit their own time to the PAAG. A Member must inform the co-chairs of any change to their professional role or employment. Membership will be periodically reviewed to ensure diversity of perspective and balance of expertise.
The Bank may terminate a Member’s participation in the PAAG at any time and at its sole discretion, including (but not limited to) where the Member no longer meets the criteria for membership, is unable to meet participation expectations, or where issues arise relating to conduct, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, or competition law compliance.
Where a Member’s participation is terminated, the Bank will notify the Member in writing. The Bank may update the published list of Members and may, where appropriate, make a brief public statement noting that the membership has changed, without disclosing the reasons for the termination.
Where subgroups are to take place, members may invite subject-matter experts from their organisation to those subgroups, to contribute to subgroup discussions and participate in subgroup presentations, for the duration of the relevant presentation.
Responsibilities and activities
The Bank will engage the PAAG on issues related to the Bank’s work programme on payments. In this respect, Members are expected to offer frank and robust inputs.
The co-chairs may invite Members to nominate themselves as lead discussants for certain topics. Academics and observers who are not members (‘external participants’) may also be invited to attend specific PAAG meetings when it is considered necessary at the discretion of the co-chairs. External participants must comply with this Terms of Reference.
The PAAG is not a decision-making body, but its views will inform and play a role in the Bank’s work on payments. The activities, discussions, and outputs of the PAAG should not be taken as an indication of future policy by the Bank or considered binding for future policy work or decisions.
The Bank will publish a list of PAAG members. Members may therefore publicly share and cite their PAAG membership. When speaking publicly about payments policy or related matters, members must make clear their views are personal and must not give any impression that the PAAG, or any individual member, has decision‑making responsibilities or represents the views of the PAAG or the Bank. Members should not cite their PAAG role in external engagements that are unrelated to payments policy.
Members of the PAAG are expected to:
- attend physical and/or virtual meetings as required, unless otherwise agreed with the co-chairs;
- provide technical, analytical, and academic perspectives and inputs to the discussions within their research or policy area of expertise;
- act in a personal capacity and contribute to the PAAG with a view to sharing perspectives that reflect their discipline as a whole, rather than representing the views or interests of their individual organisations; and
- treat information disclosed or opinions expressed during PAAG meetings as confidential unless and until the PAAG has authorised their public release.
The Co-Chairs are responsible for:
- setting the strategy for the PAAG and shaping its forward agenda;
- guiding and moderating the discussions in meetings;
- inviting external participants to attend PAAG meetings, where appropriate; and
- obtaining Members’ views on any proposed outputs.
The Secretariat will be responsible for:
- the organisation and coordination of the PAAG’s activities, including timely circulation of minutes after meetings and publication of summary minutes on the Bank’s website;
- preparation of the agenda and materials for the meetings, which may incorporate input from Members; and
- co-ordinating any outreach to other stakeholders, if required.
The PAAG will meet approximately once a quarter. The Co-Chairs may need to vary the meeting frequency where circumstances demand it. The Bank will reimburse Members for basic travel and accommodation expenses.
Members can request and/or suggest specific topics to be included in meeting agendas. Any such request should be communicated to the Secretariat before the relevant meeting to which the agenda relates. The final content of any agenda will be decided by the Co-Chairs.
The Secretariat will share draft minutes of the discussions held during the meetings with Members before publication. Members may communicate any comments or edits on the content to the Secretariat within one week of receiving the draft minutes. The final content of any summary minutes will be decided by the Co-Chairs.
Reporting, confidentiality, and accountability
The Bank is committed to being transparent about their work and the work of the PAAG. A summary of the minutes of discussions will be published on the Bank’s website after each meeting.
Interested parties who are not members are welcome to send their views on topics discussed by the PAAG by email to PaymentsEngagement@bankofengland.co.uk
Any non-public or potentially sensitive information disclosed during meetings will only be included in the minutes with the prior approval of both the speaker who made the comment and the Co-Chairs.
Any information provided or opinions expressed during PAAG meetings will be treated as confidential unless and until the PAAG has authorised their public release. ‘Participants’ (which means members and external participants) may be exposed to non-public information in the course of their work in the PAAG. Involvement of third parties in handling this material is strongly discouraged. Participants are expected to accept responsibility for ensuring that third parties cannot access any information which is shared with them through PAAG.
Where confidential information is used or disclosed by a participant during their participation in the PAAG, they agree to:
- keep such information secret and confidential;
- not use or exploit the information in any way except for the purposes of the PAAG as set out in this Terms of Reference;
- not directly or indirectly disclose or make available any such confidential information in whole or in part to any person, except as expressly permitted in writing by the Bank or in accordance with this Terms of Reference; and
- not to copy, reduce to writing or otherwise record confidential information except as strictly necessary for the purposes of the PAAG as set out in this Terms of Reference.
Participants agree to establish and maintain adequate security measures to safeguard confidential information from unauthorised access or use.
Participants may disclose confidential information to the minimum extent required by an order of any court of competent jurisdiction or any regulatory, judicial, governmental or similar body or any taxation authority of competent jurisdiction; or the laws or regulations of any country to which they are subject. Before such disclosure, participants agree to use all reasonable endeavours to give the co-chairs as much notice of this disclosure as possible (and if they are not able to inform the co-chairs of the full circumstances of the disclosure and the information that has been disclosed they should notify the co-chairs as soon as reasonably practicable after such disclosure has been made).
Participants agree to destroy or return to the Bank or (where applicable) the relevant disclosing party all documents and materials (and any copies) containing, reflecting, incorporating or based on confidential information, and to erase the information from their computer and communications systems and devices, except to the extent that such participant is required by applicable law, to retain the information.
These confidentiality provisions shall survive the termination of this Terms of Reference.
Intellectual Property
The Bank shall not acquire any right, title, or interest in or to participant’s pre-existing Intellectual Property Rights (‘IPR’). It is the responsibility of the relevant Participant to draw attention to IPRs subsisting in information shared within the PAAG.
The participants shall not acquire any right, title, or interest in or to the Bank’s pre-existing IPRs.
The participants shall have no right to use the Bank's names, logos or trademarks, without the Bank’s prior written consent.
The participants acknowledge and agree that newly created IPRs in the outputs (i.e. minutes, summaries, agenda, presentations) of the PAAG shall be owned by the Bank.
The participants grant the Bank a perpetual, irrevocable, non-attributable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide and sub-licensable licence, to use (including but not limited to the right to load, execute, store, transmit, display and copy) IPRs contained:
- in any new products (eg papers, presentations) created by the participants for the PAAG, and
- any pre-existing IPR in the product which is necessary for the Bank to enjoy the use of the product in the furthering the Bank’s work on payments.
The Bank grants to the participant a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable licence to use outputs of the PAAG for internal use within the participant’s organisation for non-commercial purposes.
Should the Bank wish to further develop ideas or outputs from the PAAG, it will be required to comply with public procurement law and shall not be fettered in its discretion to seek and enter into appropriate commercial agreements accordingly.
Relationship to the Bank’s wider work and other engagement groups
Views from the PAAG will be fed into the Bank’s wider work programme on payments. The co-chairs will be responsible for representing the PAAG’s views inside the Bank, including sharing them with relevant decision-making bodies.
The issues raised by the PAAG may inform the topics considered by other engagement groups (for example, the Payments Innovation Design Group), and vice versa. The minutes of other engagement groups will be made available to Members via the Bank’s website.
Conflicts of interest, competition law and information-sharing
Participants are responsible for identifying any financial or other interests that could create or be seen to create a conflict of interest as a participant of the PAAG, as soon as they arise. This includes reviewing the forward agenda and identifying and declaring any conflicts of interest to the secretariat before every meeting. If a participant finds that a conflict of interest becomes apparent only as the meeting progresses, the nature of the conflict should be declared as soon as practicable to the co-chairs. The co-chairs will then decide how the conflict should be managed, including whether the participant should:
- leave the meeting during discussions relating to the conflicted matter;
- stay in the meeting but not participate in the discussion; or
- stay in the meeting and participate freely.
It is the responsibility of each participant to ensure that they understand and comply with their obligations under all applicable competition law. To the extent that any participant is unclear about these, they should seek legal advice and if appropriate arrange to undertake competition law compliance training or seek further guidance at their respective organisations.
Participants may request further protections for any data and information shared with the PAAG. Participants may make requests either by communicating the request (i) directly to the Bank or (ii) to the members and co-chairs for discussion at the next PAAG meeting.
It is the responsibility of each participant to ensure that they are satisfied with the level of protection for any information shared by them. If they are not satisfied, then it is the participant’s responsibility to not share any such information.
Duration and Termination of the PAAG
The PAAG is established by the Bank and will continue for so long as the Bank considers it necessary to support its work on payments. The Bank may amend, pause or terminate the PAAG, in whole or in part, at any time and at its sole discretion. Should the Bank decide to terminate the PAAG, it will notify members in writing and will update its website accordingly. Any unfinished workstreams or PAAG-related outputs will be handled at the Bank’s discretion.
Disclaimer
Neither the Bank, nor any of their staff, officials, or representatives, including but not limited to the PAAG co-chairs and secretariat, are responsible for any views or statements expressed by other Participants.
Views expressed by the PAAG in its outputs may not reflect the views of the Bank.
The activities, discussions, and outputs of the PAAG should not be taken as an indication of future policy by the Bank. The Bank policy positions will continue to be developed and communicated in accordance with the usual governance and public consultation procedures of the organisation.
These Terms of Reference will be reviewed periodically by the Bank and may be updated or amended as required. Any material changes will be communicated to members.
Data protection
The Bank will collect the name, work email address, job title, name of organisation, and summary of role and experience, from organisations who nominate directly from individuals who submit an application for membership to the PAAG.
The Bank will also collect views, opinions and further personal data where this is shared either verbally or in writing (eg by using a chat function) by individuals participating in online meetings for the PAAG.
Where the Bank processes personal data for the purposes of setting up and managing the forum, they will use the information for the purpose of reviewing and assessing applications to become a member of the PAAG, to communicate with members and to advance the purposes of the PAAG as set out more fully in these Terms of Reference. This includes contacting unsuccessful applicants when subsequent membership opportunities arise.
The Bank will process personal data where necessary for the performance of their tasks carried out in the public interest being the establishment of a forum to facilitate dialogue around the future of money and payments in the UK. They may share your personal data with other Members where necessary for this purpose.
To ensure that the Bank’s external engagement is transparent, the names and professional affiliations of members may be published on the Bank’s website.
Safeguarding individuals’ personal data is important to the Bank. Members’ personal data will be stored on secure Bank systems with controlled access. The Bank are committed to information security, and each uses a range of layered information security measures to protect the data they hold. They will keep members’ personal data for so long as is necessary to facilitate the forum or otherwise in accordance with the Bank’s applicable document retention policies, which are available upon request from the Bank. You can request that we no longer use your personal data by writing to the Bank as applicable.
Further information about how the Bank processes personal data is set out in the Bank’s Privacy Notice.
Where the Bank uses an online meeting service provider to host meetings, then the privacy statement of that service provider will apply.
You have rights under data protection laws. To contact the Bank about those rights, including making a request for the personal data the Bank holds about you, please see the Bank’s Privacy Notice above. You can also report concerns to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the regulatory authority for data protection in the UK. Contact details can be found on their website.
The Bank’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted via the details above.
Annex 1: Membership selection process and criteria
Selection process
Applicants are asked to demonstrate how they, either individually or through their organisation, could help inform the Bank’s work on payments by answering the following questions.
Questions for nomination:
Q1 — Your role and academic experience (500 words max)
Please provide a brief summary of your role and academic experience, and how your research is relevant to the Bank’s work on payments.
Q2 — Influence in research field (250 words max)
Please give an example of a time when your perspective has challenged the status quo in your field of research. (max 250 words)
Q3 — Supplementary academic information
Please add links to your website, Google Scholar, or any other professional page.
Applicants should demonstrate how their research relates to the Bank’s and work on payments and provide evidence of fostering diversity and challenging the status quo in their workplace or with their research.
As a guide, the Bank uses the selection criteria set out below in evaluating applications, when selecting members to form the PAAG. In addition to these criteria, the Bank considers the overall balance of the group in terms of diversity in area of expertise and individual characteristics.
- Knowledge and experience. Members should be knowledgeable and experienced in academic fields relevant to payments, including but not limited to monetary policy, finance, competition economics, industrial organisation, behavioural science, law, innovation theory, marketing, business. The Bank will accept applicants from any field where the applicant can demonstrate the relevance of their research.
- Understanding of policy perspective. It is preferable if the member can demonstrate understanding of policy issues related to the future of money and payments in the UK economy.
- Resources. It is important that the member can commit sufficient time and resources to the PAAG. The required commitment will include attending quarterly workshops, and preparatory work. Members will also need to provide input into meeting and workshop agendas and papers.
- Diversity. They should contribute to the overall diversity of members and the institutions they come from. The PAAG will seek diverse representation in terms of individuals, their field of research and the organisations that they work for (eg based on size, type, geography etc), so that the PAAG may draw on a rich variety of knowledge and experiences amongst its members. On an individual level, the PAAG will incorporate members of different characteristics in terms of gender and ethnicity. On an organisational level, a variety of organisations based on size, type, geography etc. may be selected. In addition, we will only accept a maximum of two members from the same field of research.
By completing the nomination form, applicants are confirming that they agree to meet the Terms of Reference. Selection will be on the basis of responses to the questions and balance of representation across organisation types. The Bank may occasionally place a call for interest for new members to join the PAAG.