APACS delays new payments system

by Gill Montia

Story link: APACS delays new payments system

APACS, the UK trade association for payments and for those delivering payment services to customers, is not able to meet its deadline to introduce a new faster payments system for money transferred via the Internet and by telephone.

The new system, which will provide for same-day transfers, should be operational by the end of this year and the delay will leave the banking sector disappointed.

The original method proposed by APACS did not allow payments to clear on the same day if they were made late in the day and it has now been decided to launch an improved version of the system that will enable all payments to arrive on the same day.

The decision to adopt an improved method has been taken because of the increase in Internet banking. APACS had concerns that the earlier version would need to be updated within five years.

The new system should go live during 2008 but a deadline will not be set until August of this year.

Plans to change the way in which cheques are cleared remain on schedule for the end of November, after which it will no longer be possible to reclaim funds from customers’ accounts after six working days.

Currently this can happen if a cheque has bounced or is found to be fraudulent.