Market Change

Faster Payments

Faster Payments has become a reality with the launch of the new payments infrastructure on Tuesday, 27 May 2008.

Citi is a founding Member of Faster Payments, the new near real time clearing infrastructure in the UK Payment Systems. Citi sees Faster Payments as a base infrastructure that can serve as the foundation for a range of radical payment innovations.

The processing of electronic payments in the UK is set to change significantly with the launch of Faster Payments by the banking industry. The Faster Payments Service will enable electronic payments to be processed in hours rather than days. The concept of cut off times to make payments will also change as the Faster Payments Service will be available 24/7.

The main driver for the creation of a faster and innovative clearing scheme was strong political pressure from the Government and Consumer Groups to eliminate the practice of float in standing orders, internet banking and telephone banking payments. In 2004, a Payment Systems Task Force was created with the goal to look at those issues and other competitive aspects of the UK Banking industry.

In 2005, APACS and a group of banks followed the recommendation of the Payment Systems Task Force to create a faster clearing scheme to address the issue of float and to bring greater innovation and competition in the UK Payment Systems. Faster Payments was set to become a reality.

As you navigate the fast pace of change from regulation, technology and the global marketplace your Citi team is fully committed to being your banking partner of choice. For more information on how your organization can take advantage of the benefits of Faster Payments:

Faster Payments
FACTS

The delivery of Faster Payments is been led by APACS, the UK Payments Association, and by a group of banks and building societies.

Citi is one of the 13 Members of the Scheme. The other 12 Members are: Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester, Barclays Bank, Clydesdale Bank, Danske Bank, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB Bank, Nationwide Building Society, Northern Rock, The Co-Operative Bank, RBOS.

The development of the Faster Payments Service is a multi-million project requiring investments in a Central Infrastructure and in new payment processing systems within each Member. Immediate Payments Limited (IPL), owned by VocaLink, is providing the Central Infrastructure and the real-time transaction expertise.

The core to delivering Faster Payments is the Central Infrastructure (CI) that will accept same-day transactions 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and will process single same-day payments in a matter of seconds.

From the launch of the Scheme, the reachability is expected to cover a large majority of UK sort codes. The 13 founding Members account for 97% of payments made today through UK payment systems. Faster Payments addressable sort codes can be extracted from the Industry Sort Code Dabase (ISCD), which will be updated by Members. The ISCD can be accessed by Members and other Sponsored Participants and is also openly available to customers via the Faster Payments website.