Faster Payments

UK banking is soon to undergo a radical change. Today, when you make a bank payment, cleared funds arrive with the beneficiary after passing through a three-day clearing cycle. Soon, payees will be able to receive cleared funds rapidly and payers will have the certainty that their funds have been debited immediately. Making a bank-to-bank payment will become as quick and easy as transferring money between accounts at your own bank.

In 2005, 13 UK banks and building societies came together and set out their requirements for a Faster Payments Service. They chose VocaLink to deliver this important initiative.

The Faster Payments Central Infrastructure, running on the VocaLink Real-Time Payments Platform, will go live on 27 May 2008. From this date, the banking industry will roll the service out to consumers and businesses across the UK. Over time, we believe that Faster Payments will become a ubiquitous 24 hour self-service payment option as popular as email and as easy as sending a mobile text message.

The new service will run alongside existing UK payment schemes such as Bacs and CHAPS, giving consumers more choice and flexibility in how they pay and get paid.

For more information click here to download the Faster Payments Central Infrastructure product sheet or use the links on the left to find out more.

Faster Payments key dates

Follow this link to view the Faster Payments timeline.