UK Banks Aim For Faster Payments Processing

Seven major UK banks will implement a new same day “retry system” when processing payments, reported Finextra. The banks have reached an agreement with the Financial Conduct Authority to use the system in an attempt to speed up processing for direct debits, standing orders and in-advance bill payments. At present, the UK’s Faster Payments Services means payments done through a bank generally take a few seconds to be completed. The problem lies within the payment process because banks usually process incoming and outgoing payments first thing in the morning. This means if a consumer deposits or gets salary after the payment process, they risk being left with an unpaid item charge.

In attempt to solve this recurring problem, the retry system will require the bank to reprocess a payment in the afternoon if money is unavailable at the time of payment.

The high street banks participating include Barclays, The Co-operative, HSBC, Nationwide, RBS Group, Santander and National Australia Group.

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