Senior UK bank executives will meet this week to begin creating a domestic payments network to rival Visa and Mastercard.
The talks will be chaired by Vim Maru of Barclays and will bring together major City funders.
The project aims to ensure the economy can keep running if US-owned card systems are disrupted.
About 95% of UK card transactions currently rely on Visa or Mastercard.
Executives warn that losing access would force businesses back to cash-based payments.
Concerns have grown as geopolitical tensions increase and reliance on foreign infrastructure comes under scrutiny.
Similar debates are taking place in the EU about building sovereign payment systems.
The initiative, known as DeliveryCo, will be funded by banks and supported by the government.
Participants include Santander UK, NatWest, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society and the ATM network Link.
Visa and Mastercard are also involved in the discussions.
The Bank of England will design the technical infrastructure, with the new system expected around 2030.
Officials say the goal is resilience rather than replacing existing networks.
