The £300m Faster Payments (FP) banking service reached a new peak in December, with more than 63 million payments being sent or received since its May launch, according to figures from UK payments association Apacs.

Under FP, payments made over the web or phone are cleared in a few hours as opposed to the previous three days. Around two-thirds of such payments are now processed through the service, but still represent fewer than half of all standing orders.

The system processed over 63 million payments during its first six months of operation, representing a value of over £26bn in automated payments. The highest point came on 1 December, when almost four million payments were made.

Of the banks joining the initiative, Barclays, Citi, HSBC and RBS are among the institutions capable of sending and receiving payments under the scheme.

More than 40 per cent of all credit card accounts are now payable through the service, and three credit card companies offer the facility for customers to pay their bills.

Since its delayed launch last year, the scheme has been criticised for the limited time allowed to perform the necessary security checks on transactions, but banks expect that an initial transaction cap of £10,000 and a phased implementation will help mitigate fraud and settlement risk.