Faster Payments

Not to be confused with Faster Payment System, a payment system in Hong Kong.

Faster Payments logo

The Faster Payments Service (FPS) is a United Kingdom banking initiative to reduce payment times between different banks' customer accounts to typically a few seconds, from the three working days that transfers usually take using the long-established BACS system. CHAPS, which was introduced in 1984, provides a limited faster-than-BACS service (by close of business that day) for "high value" transactions, while FPS is focused on the much larger number of smaller payments, subject to limits set by the individual banks, with some allowing Faster Payments of up to £1million.[1] Transfer time, while expected to be short, is not guaranteed, nor is it guaranteed that the receiving institution will immediately credit the payee's account.[2]

Nine banks and one building society, accounting for about 95% of payments traffic, initially committed to using the service; as of May 2018 there were 21 direct participants.[3] For smaller organisations such as building societies and savings institutions, the service is available through agency arrangements with a direct participant. Initially, there were few announcements regarding charges for Faster Payments; it had been expected to be around £1–£5[4][5][6] for immediate payments by business users. No retail bank currently charges personal customers for this service (with non-guaranteed transfer time), nor, as of 2018, was there any sign that this would change.

FPS was officially launched on 27 May 2008[7][8] (though testing during the previous week allowed users to process very small-value (1p) transactions as "faster payments")[9] for non-scheduled, "immediate" payments (about 5% of traffic) only,[10] with access for future-dated payments and standing orders from 6 June. In practice, the service was severely limited by the approach of individual member banks to its adoption (see Implementation). A general online sort code checker[11] was made available through APACS shortly ahead of launch, which shows whether a specific sort code is able to receive Faster Payments.

On 1 May 2018 the Bank of England announced that the New Payment System Operator (NPSO), which had been rebranded as Pay.UK in 2017,[12] had taken over responsibility for the operation of the Bacs and Faster Payments systems[13] and Faster Payments announced that it had become a subsidiary company of Pay.UK.[14]

  1. ^ FPS limit increases
  2. ^ Barclays Bank, Faster Payments FAQ
  3. ^ Faster Payments: Directly Connected Participants
  4. ^ Albany Software Archived 21 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine February 2007
  5. ^ Bank of Scotland Corporate Tariff About your account and our charges Archived 12 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Coutts Commercial tariff Faster Payments – Commercial clients
  7. ^ "Celebrating 10 amazing years – 24/7 since 2008". Faster Payments. 25 May 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  8. ^ "Banking industry update on new Faster Payments Service". apacs.org.uk. 2 March 2008. Archived from the original on 2 March 2008. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  9. ^ Money Saving Expert (20 May 2008). "HSBC Fast payment is right here right now". Retrieved 27 May 2008.
  10. ^ APACS, Press release - phased rollout for new faster payments Archived 16 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine 28 April 2008
  11. ^ "Sort Code Checker". Faster Payments. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  12. ^ "Heritage - Pay.UK". Pay.UK. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  13. ^ "Consolidation of three UK Payment System Operators". Bank of England. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  14. ^ "New Payment System Operator takes on responsibility for the Bacs and Faster Payments systems". Faster Payments. Retrieved 8 October 2018.