UK Faster Payments Glitch Causes Backlog

A glitch in the infrastructure of the U.K.’s Faster Payments system has caused a backlog of transactions still waiting to clear hours later, according to BBC reports from Monday (July 9).

The publication said the glitch occurred between 1:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. BST on Sunday. As of Monday evening, the transactions initiated during that period had yet to be cleared.

According to the New Payment System Operator (NPSO), the issue occurred in the scheme’s central infrastructure, and the issue has been corrected. A spokesperson for the NPSO said the issue is being investigated.

The NPSO only recently acquired control of the Faster Payments scheme, as the government consolidates the nation’s payments systems under one roof. In May, the NPSO took control of Faster Payments – as well as of the Bacs scheme – as part of that initiative. Earlier this month, the operator continued the consolidation when it took control of the nation’s check and credit clearing operations, which involves the acquisition of Cheque and Credit Clearing Company Limited.

Last month, the NPSO began a consolidation with the Bank of England to promote the adoption of the ISO 20022 payments messaging standard across all payment schemes.

The BBC reports noted that the Faster Payments glitch is unrelated to a separate incident in the U.K.’s payments industry, during which Visa saw a disruption of its payment services in the country earlier this month. The matter included an eight-hour service disruption that the company linked to a “partial degradation in our processing system, and not a cyber hack,” according to Visa Europe CEO Charlotte Hogg, reports in CityAM.com said at the time.

The U.K.’s Faster Payments scheme is now a decade old and has processed more than 9.1 billion transactions since it went live. Today, it accounts for more than $1.32 trillion in payments made every year, according to the system’s website.