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Response to HM Treasury: Modernising Payment Services Regulation - October 2026

Cogent Governance's response to HM Treasury on agentic payments 2026: whose authority is exercised when an AI system initiates a payment, and why accountability for that delegation remains with the board.

What we told HM Treasury about agentic payments


Cogent Governance & Risk LTD responded to HM Treasury's consultation on Modernising Payment Services Regulation, which closed on 6 October 2026.

Our response focused on a governance question that sits above the technical design of agentic payments:

Whose authority is being exercised when a payment is initiated by an AI system?


Our key observations:

  • AI systems do not possess legal personality and cannot be agents in law.

  • Authority cannot be delegated to an AI system. It remains with the individual or organisation that configures, instructs and supervises it.

  • Responsibility and execution may be delegated. Accountability for the delegation remains with the board.

  • Boards require reliable information on AI use, incidents and outcomes. Without it, they are accountable in law but blind in practice.

  • Agentic payments raise questions of customer due diligence, liability and governance that extend beyond payment regulation alone.

The future of AI governance depends on these four governance elements being clearly allocated:


Accountability. Responsibility. Information. Decision-making.


The open question is whether regulation will say so before the first significant failure, or after it.

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