CHAPS to run longer from June Bank transfer system CHAPS is to stay open an extra hour and forty minutes from 20th June.
The Bank of England’s Real Time Gross Settlement System, which processes the payments, will enable banks and building societies to make bank to bank transfers until 18h00, and 17h40 for customer to customer transfers.
Individual institutions will still be able to set their own individual cut off times. The contingency end-of-day remains unchanged.
A statement from CHAPS read: “The Bank of England, as operator of RTGS system, carried out a review of its operating hours in 2014. Its findings showed that extending the hours that CHAPS works would provide greater flexibility to businesses and financial institutions when making decisions on funding, investment and risk management, and a potentially longer window during which housing transactions can complete.
“The extended settlement day will also apply to other users of RTGS system, including Euroclear UK & Ireland which operates CREST, the UK’s securities settlement system.
“By allowing the CHAPS payments system to stay open for an extra hour and 40 minutes, this potentially enables the following to take place:
- “Participants and other banks to provide more time to make a critical or high value payment, to individuals and businesses;
- “Conveyancers to have a further opportunity for completing house purchases on the contracted day, maximising the chances of this in cases of delay;
- “Financial stability risk to be further mitigated, giving financial institutions and large corporates more time in the day to settle their positions and ensure that all outstanding balances have been paid. “
