Faster payments

Probably because the banks don't really like the Faster Payments Service. It was forced on them by a government inquiry. The first stage is up and running with some banks only, others are dragging their feet. This is the bank-to-bank service that allows you to, say, use internet banking to pay money from one account to an account with another bank, provided that bank accepts FPS transfers, which not all do... yet.

The next stage is Direct Corporate Access (DCA) which will allow corporates to make faster payments using a new BACS service. The start date for this keeps getting put back and the number of banks implementing it dwindling. Currently only Barclays have commited to implement it.

So given the banks' general unwillingness to push Faster Payments forward, why would they want to use it for Standing Orders? There's nothing in it for them, so why waste money updating their systems to enable it?

BobC

Yes, I agree with u in this context. Only Barclay is providing the feature to the customers. I don't know why banks are not showing interest on this issue...probably, as u said, they don't want to waste their money......

I understand HSBC, RBS group & Alliance & Leicester have also implemented FPS for SOs.

Hi, I believe some banks are not showing too much interest as it means they move the money more quickly out of their clutches and onto the correspondant bank. They would prefer to hold onto the cash for longer. I'm also not impressed that HBOS have partially implemented the system. Intelligent Finance (part of Halifax/HBOS) have not implemented it, and I read somewhere they have no intention of implementing it either! Faster Payments is provided by APACS (UK Payments Association) - i.e those who operate CHAPS. I understand the complexities of changing a system within a Bank, and the processes involved with taking a new service from development, into pre-production and then service introduction. So I don't mind the excuse "We are working hard to implement the Faster Payments system" that some Bank are saying. However, to blatanty say "We are not implementing it... (period)" - is defiant, and these banks should be brought up for questioning, especially if the service is not supposed to be optional.

Did someone say on this group that Faster Payments was a government initiative ?

Regards

Steve C