The UK Banks just Agreed with us
Britain is building its own Payment Rail. Ai-Native Commerce Currency is already Live.
Greggar Deterville, Founder and CEO, KAELUM Technologies Ltd
15 September 2026
On 15 September 2026 the UK Payments Delivery Company launched a £50 million raise to build a domestic alternative to Visa and Mastercard. The vulnerability of the card duopoly is no longer a contrarian view. It is now national policy, backed by the Treasury, the Bank of England, and the country’s biggest banks. Read the original article on Medium
The Problem is now the Establishment’s Problem
For a year, KAELUM has opened every conversation with the same uncomfortable fact. Roughly 95% of UK card transactions run through two US-owned networks. The Payment Systems Regulator has found that Visa and Mastercard raised their scheme and processing fees by more than 30% in real terms over five years, with little evidence that service quality improved to match. That concentration is what financial leaders call a single point of failure.
Until recently, saying so out loud marked you as a challenger. As of today it is the shared position of the Treasury, whose National Payments Vision set the direction, the Bank of England, which is partnering on the new model, and the four largest banks in the country, which are now putting capital behind it. The problem slide has become the policy.
What Actually Launched
The UK Payments Delivery Company, working name DeliveryCo, opened an equity raise seeking around £50 million to fund its incorporation and mobilisation through 2028. Nineteen financial services groups are behind it: the four largest UK banks alongside Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Nationwide, PayPal and Wise. The design goal is account-to-account payment that bypasses the card scheme intermediaries. A search for its first chief executive is already under way, and further investment will be needed to build the infrastructure itself once the company is stood up. Tellingly, Visa and Mastercard have been involved in the early work, which points to a collaborative rebuild of the rails rather than a confrontation.
This is Validation, not Competition
It is worth being precise about why this news strengthens KAELUM rather than threatening it. The PDC is a rail. It sits where the card schemes sit and moves money between bank accounts. KAELUM is not a rail. It is the Ai-governed, closed-loop commerce currency and intelligence layer that runs on top of the rails, serving customers, creators and merchants with a discount loop, creator monetisation and merchant analytics. Different layer, different job.
That distinction is also KAELUM’s advantage. KAELUM is rail-agnostic. TrueLayer Open Banking is the live primary on-ramp today, Stripe is the secondary rail, Modulr is planned for European settlement after funding, and a rail like the PDC becomes another option KAELUM can ride the day it ships. KAELUM does not compete with the pipes. It rides whichever pipe wins.
The Gap is Time, and KAELUM is Live Now
The £50 million only carries the PDC through setup and mobilisation. The infrastructure that customers and merchants would actually use comes after that, on a longer horizon. The European picture is similar. Wero is real but early and geographically limited, with e-commerce acceptance live in Germany from late 2025 and in France and Belgium from January 2026, in-store payments rolling out through 2026, and several billion euros still required to scale. The digital euro is 2029 at the earliest.
KAELUM is live now. K.A.T.E., the Ai engine that governs every transaction, is built and operational. 8T Clothing is the first verified live merchant. The agentic checkout layer has been demonstrated end to end, with an external Ai agent discovering KAELUM on a third-party storefront and completing a real KAE checkout at a merchant discount. While the sovereign rail hires a CEO, KAELUM is processing commerce.
How KAELUM sits alongside the Alternatives
The categories do not map onto each other neatly, which is the point. KAELUM is not a better card network. It is a different kind of thing.
KAE is fixed at £0.20 per unit. The 6%+ discount applies only when KAE is spent at partnered merchants, never on the purchase of KAE itself.
Why Ai-Native is the Real Difference
Crypto is powered by blockchain. KAELUM is powered by Ai. Every transaction on the platform is governed by K.A.T.E., a multi-instance deployment of Claude that handles routing, reconciliation, compliance and fraud detection before anything settles. The governing line is simple: K.A.T.E. governs the rails, you govern the spend. Users set a permission level for each capability, from observe to recommend to autonomous, and sensitive actions pass through human approval gates. This is not a card network with an app bolted on. It is a commerce layer where intelligence and control are built into the currency itself.
The Regulatory Position
KAELUM is a closed-loop arrangement. KAELUM is pre-launch and is working towards the appropriate regulatory permissions before it takes any customer funds. KAELUM is not cryptocurrency, not blockchain-based, and not speculative. KAE circulates within the ecosystem and is not offered as an investment.
What Happens Next
The market has spent a year debating whether the card duopoly is a genuine vulnerability. A £50 million raise by the UK’s biggest banks settles that debate. The demand for a sovereign, lower-cost, Ai-native way to move commerce is no longer a forecast. It is being funded in public.
KAELUM is building the layer that makes that shift usable, and it is doing it now. If you are a merchant who wants lower-friction commerce and a genuine loyalty loop, or a creator who wants to turn an audience into transactions, this is the moment to look closely. The platform is live and growing, early merchants are already on it, and the window is open while the institutional alternatives are still on the drawing board. See how it works at kaelum.app
Frequently Asked Questions
What is KAELUM?
KAELUM is an Ai-governed, non-crypto, closed-loop digital commerce currency platform. Its currency, KAE, is fixed at £0.20 per unit and is used by customers, creators and merchants within a single ecosystem governed by the K.A.T.E. Ai engine.
How is KAELUM different from the card networks and the new UK payment rail?
The card networks and the PDC are payment rails that move money between accounts. KAELUM is a commerce currency and intelligence layer that runs on top of any rail, adding Ai governance, a closed-loop design and a 6%+ discount when customers spend KAE at partnered merchants.
Why does this matter now?
The UK’s biggest banks are raising £50 million to build a domestic alternative to Visa and Mastercard, and European alternatives remain years away. KAELUM is live today, which is the advantage while institutional infrastructure is still being funded and built.
KAELUM (‘Kay-Lum’) and its commerce currency, KAE, are not an investment or a tradeable asset. A KAE unit is a fixed-value, closed-loop commerce currency intended for use within the KAELUM ecosystem, and it is not offered as a financial product or a means of generating a return. Nothing on this platform constitutes financial advice, and KAELUM does not provide professional financial advice. Users should seek advice from a suitably qualified financial professional before making any financial decisions.
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