2024 PSR Summer Internship Programme: Policy

We offer you the chance to start your career and make a real difference.

About the PSR

How payments work affects the society we live in; the challenges faced by the vulnerable; how likely we are to fall victim to fraud; and how easily we can manage our money. Payments underpin our economy. Behind these payments are several important payment systems. We rely on these systems to support markets, facilitate competition, and drive innovation. This helps to deliver new products, find new ways to protect people from harm, and deliver services that give people and businesses more choice and control about how to pay and be paid. We need the technology, the rules governing the use of these systems and the markets they support to all work well. This is where the PSR plays an important role - we are the economic regulator of, and competition authority for, those systems. We protect people and businesses and promote competition and innovation in these systems and the markets that they support. Operationally we are an independent subsidiary of the Financial Conduct Authority.

About the Policy team

The Policy team is focused on delivering our strategy and you will have the opportunity to work on various aspects of policy development and analysis, project delivery and stakeholder management. The policy projects you may be involved in include:

• Card Fees Market Reviews - debit and credit cards are the most used payment methods by domestic consumers. We are looking at some of the fees paid by different businesses (including merchants and card-issuing banks) when cards are used by customers, to understand whether the markets are working well.
• Account-to-Account Retail Transactions - in this programme you will work to increase the choices available to people and businesses when they make retail transactions by supporting innovation in account-to-account and open banking payments.

You may work across more than one project and you can also expect opportunities to move between projects as our work priorities shift or as your career with us develops.

About the programme

Programme Length: Ten weeks

Programme Type: Summer placement

Our Summer Internship Programme gives you valuable insight into the PSR and financial services market and provides you with an opportunity for real responsibility while you're with us. You will have the opportunity to work on various policy projects and analysis, contributing to our overall success while building essential relationships both within and outside our organisation.

As an Intern in the Policy Team, you will:

• Support the development of policy, offering your insights and analytical skills to influence and shape the payment systems landscape.
• Work closely with diverse teams within PSR, collaborating with experts in policy, economics, law, strategy, supervision, and communications to deliver high-quality results.
• Interact with a wide range of external stakeholders, including firms, government bodies, fellow regulators, and consumer groups to gather evidence, test policy options and explain our approach.
• Work closely with the rest of the policy team to ensure that our decisions and recommendations are grounded in robust economic analysis and supported by solid evidence.
• Manage the development of policy documents and briefings, often within tight timelines.
• Gain experience in presenting policy recommendations to PSR leadership.

You will have the opportunity to work closely with other divisions within PSR, including our Strategy & Intelligence and our Supervision, Compliance & Monitoring departments and develop a breadth of skills and experiences to help you progress your career. Whichever team you join, you'll be showing us your potential and we'll show you what a regulatory career is really like. You'll experience first-hand the breadth and diversity of work we do here at the PSR and learn from the brightest minds in the industry through learning lunches and speaker sessions from our senior leaders. By the end of the programme, you'll be able to decide whether a regulatory career is for you - and successful interns could be offered a place on one of our 2025 graduate programmes at the end of the summer.

What we look for

We're not prescriptive when it comes to your background, all we ask is that you're in your penultimate year of study and on track to gain a 2:1 degree or equivalent. Most importantly, we're looking for passion, integrity, ambition and aptitude. We want you to use and build upon the transferrable skills from your degree; working collaboratively and being strategically minded to solve problems and form judgements.

What we offer

We're committed to making the PSR a great place to work. We do this by:

• providing a rewarding environment, recognising that our people are motivated by meaningful work
• maintaining a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, allowing people to develop and progress without barriers
• looking after the well-being of our people, ensuring that they are safe and well and appropriately cared for
• promoting an environment in which people are valued and respected

At the PSR you'll have the opportunity to make a difference. We offer all our summer interns:

• A competitive salary of £24,000 (pro-rata)
• A bespoke induction in the first week of the summer internship programme to introduce you to what we do at the PSR and our place in the Financial Services landscape
• Access to a skills training path to support you through your internship and beyond
• Completion of a financial services related project that benefits the local community, which you will present to a senior panel of judges towards the end of your internship
• Opportunity to hear from senior speakers across the business
• Lunch and learn sessions to widen your knowledge of the PSR divisions and their work
• Social opportunities to network and engage with your intern cohort

PLEASE NOTE: We only accept ONE application per person for our 2024 programmes, therefore, please apply to your first-choice programme. Any additional applications will not be progressed. For the 2024 Summer Internship Programme, please submit your online application by Sunday 10th December 2023. However, we recruit on a rolling basis and therefore encourage early applications. Applicants must in their penultimate year of study and on track to achieve a minimum 2:1 degree from any university. Your application and any work you submit throughout the recruitment process must be all your own. You will not allow another person to complete any parts of the assessment nor submit responses provided or generated by an AI assistant or other similar software.

This employer is a corporate member of myGwork - LGBTQ professionals, the business community for LGBTQ professionals, students, inclusive employers & anyone who believes in workplace equality.

• Can you tell us about your understanding of payment systems and their importance in society?
• What interests you about the PSR and the work of the Policy team?
• How would you approach conducting a market review of card fees?
• Can you explain the concept of account-to-account retail transactions and their potential impact on the payment systems landscape?
• How would you gather evidence and test policy options when engaging with external stakeholders?
• Can you provide an example of a time when you had to manage the development of policy documents within tight timelines?
• How would you ensure that policy recommendations are grounded in robust economic analysis and supported by solid evidence?
• Can you discuss your experience in presenting policy recommendations to senior leadership?
• What skills and experiences do you hope to gain from this internship?
• Why do you believe you would be a good fit for a regulatory career at the PSR?

• What are some of the current challenges and issues in the payment systems landscape that the PSR is addressing?
• Can you provide more details about the specific policy projects that I may be involved in during the summer internship?
• How does the PSR work with external stakeholders, such as firms, government bodies, and consumer groups, to gather evidence and test policy options?
• What opportunities for career development and progression are available within the PSR after completing the summer internship?
• Can you provide more information about the financial services related project that interns will work on and present to a senior panel of judges?