Faster bank transfers on their way

Tuesday, 29th April 2008 09:27 - by Resident IFA

APACS, the UK payments association, confirmed yesterday that the Faster Payments Service should be ready for launch on May 27th. What does this mean for you? It will speed up those one-off payments made over the internet or phone (Standing Orders are included from June 6th), lessening the time taken for the journey from 3 days to 1 day. Another benefit is that the facility will be available 24 hours a day. I can’t be the only one who has logged-on later in the evening, only to be told that ‘The payment cut-off time for today has passed’! As with most improvements to Banking, this won’t happen overnight, rather being phased-in based on each bank’s timescales. APACS have said that on day one they expect the amount of payments benefiting from the Faster Payments Service to be 5%, gradually increasing to over 50% by the end of the summer. I have to think this ‘slowly, slowly’ approach is wise, as it is such a large undertaking. Like most consumers, I would rather they work within their abilities and be able to deal with the initial volumes, rather than the system suffering through them being over-ambitious. APACS Chief Executive, Paul Smee, backed-up this viewpoint: “As with any payment system there is no room for error as it will be an integral part of the UK’s economic infrastructure. A phased rollout will best help us ensure customers get the safety, integrity and efficiency they have come to expect when making payments here in the UK.” In terms of the monetary amount of payments benefiting from the Faster Payments Service, the maximum for phone and internet payments will be £10,000, with Standing Orders facing a limit of £100,000. Some banks may well adopt lower figures than these at launch – their prerogative. The thirteen founding members are: Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, Barclays, Citi, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks (National Australia Group), Co-operative Bank, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide Building Society, Northern Bank (Danske Bank), Northern Rock, Royal Bank of Scotland Group (including NatWest and Ulster Bank). Until next time...