By Jo Best, 27 May 2009 12:31
NEWS
One year on from the launch of the Faster Payments service and 180 million transactions - worth more than £70bn - have passed through the system.
The Faster Payments directive, which first went live on 27 May 2008, aims to cut the time it takes UK banking customers to move money from several days to a few hours.
According to figures from payments organisation Apacs, the peak day so far for Faster Payments has been 2 March, when around £1bn-worth of payments were made through the service.
In its first month, £209m was processed through Faster Payments. One year later, that figure is expected to hit £7.7bn.
Despite growth in the use of Faster Payments, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) recently warned that consumers could be losing millions with banks not moving fast enough to take up the service.
On one day in March, only 69 per cent of payments that should be made through FPS were, the OFT found, and it's expected to be June before the figure hits 100 per cent. As a result, consumers have lost between £38m and £82m.
According to research by TNS, awareness of the service's existence also remains low, with only 55 per cent of people in the UK saying they had heard of Faster Payments and only 46 per cent of individuals having made a payment through it.
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1. Adrian Stafford-Jones
One year on the UK Faster Payments initiative implementation has been an incredible success. The system has now processed more than 180 million payments totalling over £70bn. More importantly, the UK market is now realising how vital the Faster Payments initiative is for businesses, particularly during the credit crunch, saving costs, time and easing cash flow.
As a new service, it was imperative that best practice be implemented through every stage of the Faster Payments initiative. The successful roll out of the new scheme has now set a precedent for future initiatives.
In conjunction with Faster Payments, the first financial e-transaction tool has passed through the testing process and has achieved final approval, providing businesses with a new, highly-scalable, intelligent multi-payment routing solution that has the capability to integrate, connect and deliver from any existing accounting infrastructure.
Sophisticated e-transaction tools that manage all payment methods including: Bacs, Faster Payments, European Payments and SEPA within one solution, assist the end user in making best practice decisions. Furthermore, intelligent processing within the payments mechanism addresses deficiencies within core accounting solutions, helping maintain a tighter rein on limits and bringing control into the hands of the Finance Director at the time of processing - vital in a turbulent economic climate.
Yours sincerely,
Adrian Stafford-Jones
Managing Director
Albany Software