We received 36 responses to our February discussion paper, from various stakeholders, including banks, payment service providers, public institutions, and trade associations representing a significant share of the UK payment landscape. This feedback, together with that obtained through general industry engagement, has been instrumental in forming our analysis for future RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours.
The feedback verified the overall benefits, costs, and other implications outlined in the discussion paper. The main use case cited was enhancing cross-border payments by increasing overlap with other RTGS systems (in particular APAC, EU, and the Americas). Respondents also noted potential benefits for liquidity management and innovation. Staffing and system upgrades were the key cost drivers highlighted.
Feedback suggests a preference for extending CHAPS into the morning on weekdays as a first step, to increase overlap with EU and APAC countries and to avoid operational issues associated with later closing or weekend operations. There is some demand to enable a longer window for CHAPS extensions in contingency (up to 10pm rather than the current ability to extend to 8pm) and to explore additional settlement times for retail systems. For any change to RTGS and CHAPS hours, there is strong demand for flexibility for participants to choose when to use non-core hours, and a preference for a similar level of service support from the Bank during non-core hours as during current hours.