Meet the Chairs - Leon Carford

This week we speak with Leon Carford, Chair of FCE's Payment Working Group. Fleet cards are Business-to-Business transaction instruments, and payments regulations are essential for the sector. He shares how the group's activities are, what their focus is, what he likes about his role, and how this makes a difference for our members.

Leon, what is the Payment Working Group and what does it focus on?
The Payment Working Group brings together payments, public relations, regulatory and compliance specialists from across FCE's membership to monitor developments in the EU payments framework and assess what they mean for the fleet card industry. Much of our focus is on how the framework applies to fleet cards in practice. Fleet cards are a business-to-business purchasing arrangement built around fuel and mobility services, and they work differently from general purpose payment instruments. A significant part of our role is helping policymakers understand that distinction - how the product actually operates, who uses it and why, and what a proportionate regulatory treatment looks like. The group also tracks how the framework is applied at national level. Divergent interpretations between Member States create challenges for companies operating cross-border, so a consistent and predictable approach matters as much to our members as the content of the rules themselves.
 
What are your goals for the upcoming year?
The EU payments framework is the set of rules governing how payment services are provided across the single market - who needs to be authorised, what obligations apply, and how consumers and businesses are protected. It has been in place for some years and is now being substantially revised. That revision is the priority for the year ahead. With the new legislation moving towards implementation and the accompanying technical standards and guidance expected soon, the next year is when much of the practical detail will be settled. Our objective is to engage early, identify the issues that will cause difficulty in practice, and develop common industry positions that we can put to policymakers constructively.

Alongside that, we want to keep pace with how our members' businesses are changing. EV charging, wider mobility services and new technologies are becoming a larger part of the picture, and making sure legislative frameworks accommodate those developments is an important part of our future work.
 
What do you enjoy most about your role?
The mix of technical depth and practical problem-solving. Payments regulation is detailed and fast-moving, and our members bring a great deal of direct experience of how it operates across different markets and business models. Around the table you have companies who compete with each other in the market working through shared technical questions collaboratively. Turning that collective experience into a clear, evidenced position that policymakers can engage with is the part of the role I enjoy most.

There is also a political dimension that I find really interesting. Representing an industry in this setting means engaging with policymakers, regulators and central banks who each come to the table with their own objectives that do not always point in the same direction, and rarely start from the same place as a commercial one. Finding win-win positions is a puzzle, and getting there is very satisfying when it comes off.
 
How do the Working Group's activities help FCE members?
The group gives members early sight of developments and a forum to work through what they mean. Regulatory change is rarely straightforward, and being able to test interpretations with peers across different markets is valuable in itself.

Beyond that, working collectively gives the industry a stronger and more coherent voice. A single company raising a technical point with a regulator carries some weight. Made on behalf of the sector and supported by evidence from across the membership, it carries considerably more - and that is more than any of us can achieve alone.