In February 2024 we published two Discussion Papers – one on RTGS operating hours and another on RTGS access policies. These papers aim to be the basis for further research and dialogue with the payments industry on these important topics.
The Bank’s recent industry consultation on the Roadmap for RTGS service beyond 2024 seeks industry views on the continuous evolution of the RTGS service. The vision for further enhancements to RTGS beyond 2024 has three focus areas: new ways to connect; innovative and flexible settlement services; and world-class resilience. During the consultation period, the Bank hosted a series of workshops to explore industry views related to the consultation questions in more depth. These workshops did not contain any new information and no decisions have been made in light of them. The workshops represented a diverse group of firms, including banks, building societies, non-bank payment service providers and trade associations. Please find below a summary of these discussions for your information.
On 13 February 2023, the Bank issued a response to the consultation on the roadmap for RTGS beyond 2024. It summarised industry feedback and set out our vision for shaping the roadmap for RTGS once the new core settlement engine is introduced in summer 2024.
On 13 February 2023, we published the RTGS-CHAPS Tariff Consultation Response Paper which summarises the Bank’s decisions, taking into consideration industry feedback, on the new structures we will use to recover the build and run costs of the renewed RTGS service
The RTGS Programme Team sends out a quarterly newsletter, if you would like to be added to the mailing list, please use the contact form below.
As part of their regular speaking engagements, senior representatives of the Bank of England have been spreading the message about RTGS Renewal. Please click on the links listed below to read a selection of these speeches in full.
Deputy Governor for Markets and Banking, Dave Ramsden:
Executive Director for Banking, Payments and Innovation, Victoria Cleland:
We concluded our ISO 20022 webinar series with a panel event joined by guest speakers from SWIFT, JP-Morgan and Lloyd's Bank, follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date with our latest news and any upcoming events.
On 25 January 2024, Victoria Cleland, Executive Director of Payments delivered a speech at the Payments Regulation and Innovation Summit, describing how the Bank is enhancing its core payments infrastructure and policies in the light of the opportunities arising from innovation and new technologies in the payment landscape.
We welcomed the global payments industry to our bi-annual all industry event in November 2023.
In November 2023 we held the first in a series of webinars on the benefits of ISO 20022.
At the end of November 2023, the RTGS Renewal Connectivity Testing window opened for Participant Acceptance Testing.
We published our RTGS/CHAPS Annual Report in October 2023. Sharing how we have progressed against our strategy, our future plans and our achievements.
On 31 October 2023, Victoria Cleland, Executive Director of Payments delivered a speech at the UK Finance Digital Innovation Summit. Victoria emphasised the importance of ISO 20022 messaging and understanding its benefits, adding that harmonisation was the key to success, and that there would be benefits for everyone in the payments ecosystem.
On 13 February 2023, the Bank issued a response to the consultation on the roadmap for RTGS beyond 2024. It summarised industry feedback and set out our vision for shaping the roadmap for RTGS once the new core settlement engine is introduced in summer 2024.
On 13 February 2023, we published the RTGS-CHAPS Tariff Consultation Response Paper which summarises the Bank’s decisions, taking into consideration industry feedback, on the new structures we will use to recover the build and run costs of the renewed RTGS service.
On 5 December 2022, we announced that the migration of CHAPS to ISO 20022 messaging (Transition State 2.1 of the RTGS Renewal Programme) – would occur on 19 June 2023, rather than April 2023.
Over 350 stakeholders attended our biannual Industry Event on Monday 5 December.
At the end of April 2022 we launched two industry consultations relating to the renewed RTGS service.
The consultation on the Roadmap for the Real-Time Gross Settlement service beyond 2024 seeks views from a wide range of current and prospective stakeholders on how RTGS can support the future of payments once we have delivered the new RTGS core settlement engine in spring 2024. In particular it considers the vision and direction for the service, and seeks to understand industry priorities for delivery of new functionality in the RTGS system.
The consultation on the RTGS/CHAPS Tariff invites industry feedback on proposals for the new framework for the RTGS and CHAPS Tariffs (the means by which the Bank recovers costs from participants), once the renewed service is in place.
At the end of April 2022 we held our biannual Industry Event, joined by the Governor Andrew Bailey and over 260 stakeholders.
In January we announced a new timeline maintaining the move to enhanced ISO 20022 messaging in spring 2023, but instead of a two-stage process, it will now be undertaken in a single stage in April 2023. In summer 2022 the Bank will launch a Pilot Platform. The new RTGS core settlement engine will be introduced in spring 2024, subject to a +/- 3 months.
In June Victoria Cleland Executive Director Markets, Banking and Innovation gave a keynote speech.
The first meeting of the Senior Sponsors' Body was held in February 2021. Senior Sponsors' Body aims to ensure that the industry is engaged by providing senior strategic oversight, policy expertise and advice and challenge on key issues. You can find out more about SSB in the terms of reference.
On 29 April, the Bank of England published two consultation documents relating to RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement System) Renewal - the RTGS / CHAPS tariff consultation, and the Roadmap for Real-Time Gross Settlement service beyond 2024.
The Bank’s RTGS infrastructure is critical for the UK economy. It makes payments work by enabling banks, and other payment providers, to move money around the financial system seamlessly. It underpins the financial system: every card payment, bill payment or online purchase ultimately depends on RTGS running smoothly. It settles over £720bn on average every working day, turning over the equivalent of UK GDP every three days.
RTGS is crucial to the UK financial system, so running an operationally resilient RTGS that is able to process payments safely, efficiently, and effectively is a priority for the Bank. The current RTGS was built in 1996 but how we pay for goods and services has transformed dramatically since then. We need an RTGS service that is in tune with the changing payments landscape: risks posed to the system have changed; demand for the service has increased, more money flows through RTGS than ever before; and, the number of organisations and the way that they use – and want to engage with – RTGS has changed.
The Bank has embarked on a multi-year project to renew RTGS to make sure that it remains fit for purpose and is able to keep pace with change, whilst continuing to operate safely and securely. This project is essential to keeping payments flowing around the system.
In addition to even greater resilience, the renewed RTGS is being developed to enhance innovation and competition in the payments industry, ultimately leading to better services for the end users and the public.
The Bank is developing a renewed RTGS service that is fit for the future, and will deliver a wide range of benefits and value for money.
On 29 April, the Bank published the RTGS / CHAPS tariff consultation document that sets out the Bank’s proposals for updating the RTGS and CHAPS tariff framework from 2024 once the renewed RTGS core settlement engine has been launched. The cost of RTGS is recovered by the Bank from industry, via the RTGS Tariff. How the Tariff is calculated has not been substantively reviewed since RTGS was first built. With more users of the system and more services available, the Bank is seeking views on how the costs of building and running RTGS are recovered in a proportionate, fair and competitive way. The consultation proposes a new framework for how the Bank will recover the costs from industry.
The renewed RTGS is being built in a modular way to make it easier to add new functionality, and is a platform for future innovation. The Roadmap for Real-Time Gross Settlement service beyond 2024 consultation seeks views on what the future functionality of RTGS could include once the new core settlement engine has been introduced in spring 2024. It asks for industry views, from both current and potential users, on what features they would find most useful from a menu of options. This includes a range of ambitious new features, such as linking RTGS with other platforms to achieve synchronised settlement, new ways to connect to RTGS, and extended operating hours. Following the consultation, the Bank would plan to introduce any new functionality over time so that the renewed RTGS, and payments landscape in the UK, is world-leading in terms of competitiveness, innovation, and benefits to end-users.
To note that the Tariff consultation does not take into account the outcome of and costs arising from the Roadmap for Real-Time Gross Settlement service beyond 2024 consultation.
Each consultation document includes a link to an online survey, designed to quickly and easily gather responses to the topics covered in each consultation. The Bank welcomes views from a wide range of current and future users of the RTGS and CHAPS service as well as other stakeholders. This includes banks and building societies, payment service providers, technology providers, other financial market infrastructures, end-users of payment services, and trade associations. Responses should ideally include collated views from colleagues across their organisations, including those responsible for organisation budgets, setting customer tariffs, and strategic investment in payment services. Responses are encouraged by the deadline of 30 June 2022.
The Programme has set-up industry working groups for CHAPS Direct Participants to support industry readiness work. These groups bring together expertise from the industry to better understand risk management, testing and business or technical change. The groups will continue to meet on a quarterly basis throughout 2020.
Our response focussed on how the use of Legal Entity Identifiers (LEI) may provide a solution for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). In turn, this could have benefits for the real economy. This comes as part of the Bank’s effort to champion the LEI as a globally recognised and unique identifier for all businesses in the UK.
The Bank published a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) inviting potential providers to express their interest. The chosen Technology Delivery Partner will be announced in Summer 2020.
The Bank has completed a Proof of Concept (PoC) to understand how a renewed RTGS service could be capable of supporting settlement in systems operating on innovative payment technologies.
Publication of ISO 20022 consultation
One of the earliest deliverables of the RTGS renewal programme was the move to a direct delivery model for CHAPS.
External Advisory Body is set up to support an ongoing and effective dialogue between the Bank and its stakeholders during the renewal Programme.
A Blueprint for a new RTGS Service for the United Kingdom is published.
The Bank of England announces it will develop a blueprint to modernise the UK’s sterling settlement infrastructure to respond to changing needs.
Latest round-up: June 2023