Faster Payments reaches new peak

£1bn processed via the same-day payment service

The Faster Payments service may increase the number of overall payments made over the web

Same-day service Faster Payments (FP) has reached a new peak by processing 5 million transactions to a value of £1bn on 2 March, according to clearing firm Chaps.

The service, mandated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), enables payments made over the web or phone to be cleared in a few hours as opposed to the previous three days.

According to Chaps, the main reason for the increase in transaction volume is it being the end of the month when the majority of standing order payments are processed and increased uptake from banks allowing customers to benefit from the service.

Standing orders were the main type of transfer used during FP’s record day, while over three-quarters of a million were immediate payments made online or by phone and the remaining were forward dated payments.

More than 125 million payments have been sent or received via FP since its May launch, representing around £46bn. Chaps predicts that the service will drive an upward trend for volumes of inter-bank online, phone and standing order payments to 622 million in 2017 from the 2007 figure of 472 million.