In May 2005 - UK banks announced plans to develop a new infrastructure to speed up internet, phone and standing order payments.  This massive project will revolutionise the UK’s automated payments infrastructure.

The new system will enable customers to use the internet or phone to make a payment that will reach the recipient’s bank account within a few hours. The service will also be available all day, every day and means that customers will have the flexibility and convenience of moving money between accounts or paying bills on the same day within a few hours and on any day of the week*

Currently internet, phone and standing order payments account for just 8% of automated payment volumes, but the former two are growing rapidly as customers increasingly turn to them instead of more traditional payment methods such as cheques. The new system is being constructed to cater for the large volume increases projected for the future.

The new system will also enable standing order* payments to move more quickly so that money will move from your account on the due date and arrive at the beneficiary’s account on the same day.
The UK banking industry also confirmed that VocaLink are the suppliers who will jointly develop and provide the new payment system so that banks are able to offer this service to customers in 2008. LINK is the UK’s cash machine network provider and Voca currently provides the infrastructure for the 5 billion automated debits and credits we make every year.

At this stage of the project 13 institutions, accounting for over 97% of today’s existing automated payments, are committed to the new service. Other institutions will be able to join or to access the system through agency arrangements with a founding member - just as they do with other payment systems.

* The new system will also speed up the processing of standing orders from 3 days to same day but these will still only be made on and within banking business days.