UK banking is undergoing a radical change. Once, when you made a bank payment, cleared funds arrived with the beneficiary after passing through a three-day clearing cycle. Now, payees are able to receive cleared funds rapidly and payers have the certainty that their funds have been debited immediately. Making a bank-to-bank payment has 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, went live on 27 May 2008.  The banking industry will now 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 run alongside existing UK payment schemes such as Bacs and CHAPS, giving consumers more choice and flexibility in how they pay and get paid.