Banks To Speed Up Online Transfers

This year will see the convenience of online banking taken one step further when financial institutions introduce the one day bank transfer.

Replacing the 3 day transfer system currently in place this new scheme will help speed up the clearance of online or by phone payments significantly and will enable customers to transfer funds 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Representing a massive collaboration of both investment and implementation between 13 of the UK’s major banks and building societies and supported by Immediate Payments Ltd, the task of developing this infrastructure has been a large and complex one.

Originally the new payment scheme was scheduled for launch in November last year, however due to the enormity of this long awaited project it rather inevitably failed to meet the deadline.

However, a new date of 27th May 2008 was set and while there has been some uncertainty as to whether this was a realistic date for completition, APACS have now confirmed that progress is on schedule.

The introduction of this scheme will not only mean greater convenience for those who bank online or by phone but, as the clearing time for transfers is reduced, fewer people should be stung by late payment charges as funds hit accounts faster.

While only 4% of automated payments are currently arranged over the phone or online this proportion is expected to grow rapidly over the next few years as more and more people begin to bank over the internet. For this reason, while the development of this new swift payment scheme has been at a great cost to the financial institutions involved it has been an almost essential one if they are to keep up with their customers needs.

Further information as to how the new service will work will become available as the scheme nears completion. However, APACS have confirmed that standing orders will also be transformed from a 3-day to a same-day method of payment and that BACs and CHAPs will remain unchanged.