PSD2 Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

EU Revised Directive on Payment Services (PSD2)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring PSD2 skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 27 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 369 342 411
Rank change year-on-year -27 +69 +50
Contract jobs citing PSD2 37 2 1
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.20% 0.015% 0.005%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.21% 0.095% 0.032%
Number of daily rates quoted 35 2 1
10th Percentile £344 £308 -
25th Percentile £393 £316 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £430 £331 £425
Median % change year-on-year +30.11% -22.24% -39.29%
75th Percentile £497 £344 £438
90th Percentile £510 £351 -
UK median daily rate £443 £600 £425
% change year-on-year -26.17% +41.18% -26.60%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK excluding London

PSD2 falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 3,048 2,110 3,141
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 16.10% 15.55% 15.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,913 1,200 1,965
10th Percentile £300 £206 £257
25th Percentile £400 £354 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.21% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £585 £588
90th Percentile £675 £656 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 278 133 247
10th Percentile £14.95 £14.70 £12.15
25th Percentile £17.69 £19.83 £14.16
Median hourly rate £26.27 £28.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.18% +1.82% +12.24%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.73 £57.50
90th Percentile £69.65 £73.95 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £26.34 £29.00 £28.30
% change year-on-year -9.17% +2.47% +9.65%

PSD2
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing PSD2 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

PSD2 job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

PSD2
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing PSD2.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing PSD2

PSD2
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing PSD2 in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 27 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for PSD2 in the UK excluding London

PSD2
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing PSD2 within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 27 January 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North of England -32 24 £443 +34.04% 1
North West -10 21 £438 +32.38% 1
East Midlands - 6 £392 -
Midlands - 6 £392 -
South East - 4 £404 - 1
South West - 3 £512 - 1
Yorkshire - 3 £464 -
Scotland - 1 £523 - 1
PSD2
UK

PSD2
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 8 (21.62%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (5.41%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 10 (27.03%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 22 (59.46%) Azure
2 19 (51.35%) AWS
3 5 (13.51%) Entra ID
3 5 (13.51%) GCP
4 3 (8.11%) Azure DevOps
4 3 (8.11%) Figma
5 2 (5.41%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 2 (5.41%) Firewall
1 2 (5.41%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (5.41%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 21 (56.76%) JIRA
2 13 (35.14%) Git
3 4 (10.81%) Postman
General
1 26 (70.27%) Finance
2 21 (56.76%) Banking
3 13 (35.14%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (32.43%) Social Skills
5 7 (18.92%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (8.11%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 15 (40.54%) Developer
2 11 (29.73%) Analyst
2 11 (29.73%) Business Analyst
3 8 (21.62%) Java Developer
3 8 (21.62%) Payments Analyst
3 8 (21.62%) Payments Business Analyst
4 5 (13.51%) Architect
5 4 (10.81%) Security Architect
6 3 (8.11%) Banking Analyst
6 3 (8.11%) Banking Business Analyst
6 3 (8.11%) ForgeRock Developer
7 2 (5.41%) Digital Analyst
7 2 (5.41%) Digital Business Analyst
7 2 (5.41%) Product Owner
7 2 (5.41%) Project Manager
8 1 (2.70%) Applications Architect
8 1 (2.70%) Banking Project Manager
8 1 (2.70%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (45.95%) REST
2 13 (35.14%) JMS
2 13 (35.14%) Spring
2 13 (35.14%) Spring Boot
3 4 (10.81%) JSON
3 4 (10.81%) SOAP
3 4 (10.81%) Swagger
3 4 (10.81%) XML
4 3 (8.11%) OAuth
4 3 (8.11%) OAuth2
4 3 (8.11%) OpenID
4 3 (8.11%) RESTful
4 3 (8.11%) SAML
5 1 (2.70%) .NET
5 1 (2.70%) AngularJS
5 1 (2.70%) Middleware
5 1 (2.70%) React
Miscellaneous
1 14 (37.84%) Cloud Native
2 13 (35.14%) SWIFT Messaging Network
3 10 (27.03%) Onboarding
4 8 (21.62%) Product Ownership
5 4 (10.81%) Digital Wallet
5 4 (10.81%) Enterprise Software
5 4 (10.81%) PMI
6 3 (8.11%) EMV
6 3 (8.11%) Management Information System
6 3 (8.11%) Security Posture
7 2 (5.41%) Cloud Security Posture
7 2 (5.41%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (5.41%) Public Cloud
8 1 (2.70%) Mobile App
8 1 (2.70%) Mobile Banking
8 1 (2.70%) Self-Motivation
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (78.38%) Agile
2 23 (62.16%) Problem-Solving
3 21 (56.76%) Anti-Money Laundering
3 21 (56.76%) User Acceptance Testing
4 17 (45.95%) CI/CD
4 17 (45.95%) DevOps
4 17 (45.95%) Requirements Gathering
5 16 (43.24%) Stakeholder Management
6 14 (37.84%) SDLC
7 13 (35.14%) Test Automation
8 11 (29.73%) Containerisation
9 10 (27.03%) Integration Testing
10 9 (24.32%) KYC
10 9 (24.32%) Scrum
10 9 (24.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 9 (24.32%) Unit Testing
10 9 (24.32%) User Stories
11 8 (21.62%) Workshop Facilitation
12 7 (18.92%) Kanban
13 6 (16.22%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 14 (37.84%) Java
2 13 (35.14%) SQL
3 4 (10.81%) Python
4 3 (8.11%) PowerShell
5 1 (2.70%) C#
5 1 (2.70%) JavaScript
5 1 (2.70%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 6 (16.22%) BPSS Clearance
2 5 (13.51%) Degree
2 5 (13.51%) PMI Certification
3 4 (10.81%) AWS Certification
3 4 (10.81%) CBAP
3 4 (10.81%) Computer Science Degree
4 3 (8.11%) (ISC)2 CCSP
4 3 (8.11%) Azure Certification
4 3 (8.11%) CCSP
4 3 (8.11%) Cisco Certification
4 3 (8.11%) CISSP
4 3 (8.11%) Security Cleared
5 1 (2.70%) ISEB
5 1 (2.70%) PMP
5 1 (2.70%) SAFe Agilist
5 1 (2.70%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (45.95%) PCI DSS
1 17 (45.95%) QA
2 14 (37.84%) ISO 20022
3 13 (35.14%) SEPA
4 11 (29.73%) GDPR
5 7 (18.92%) ISO 8583
6 4 (10.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (10.81%) NIST
7 3 (8.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (2.70%) SLA
System Software
1 14 (37.84%) Docker
2 2 (5.41%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 14 (37.84%) Kubernetes
2 3 (8.11%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 13 (35.14%) Oracle
2 5 (13.51%) Microsoft
3 3 (8.11%) ForgeRock
3 3 (8.11%) Ping Identity
4 1 (2.70%) TSYS