United Kingdom · Account Transfer · Est. 2008
The UK's core instant payment system handling bank-to-bank transfers up to £1M, with most payments arriving in seconds. Originally launched with a £10K limit in 2008, it was one of the world's first real-time retail payment systems. Settles via the Bank of England's RTGS system with net deferred settlement. Managed by Pay.UK, the FPS rail also processes standing orders and forward-dated payments, but the data shown here covers Single Immediate Payments only — the real-time component. The New Payments Architecture (NPA) programme is modernising FPS with ISO 20022 messaging.
Faster Payments is United Kingdom’s real-time payment system (Account Transfer), launched in 2008. The UKs core instant payment system handling bank-to-bank transfers up to £1M, with most payments arriving in seconds.
Faster Payments processed 4.7 billion transactions worth $4.4tn in 2025, a year-on-year change of +10.8%.
Faster Payments is operated by Pay.UK, with instant settlement.
Faster Payments launched in 2008, and today has 35 participating institutions.
Faster Payments supports request-to-pay, ISO 20022 messaging.
Data source: Pay.UK.
| Capability | Status |
|---|---|
| QR Code Payments | — |
| Wallet Support | — |
| 24/7 Availability | ✓ |
| Cross-Border | — |
| ISO 20022 | ✓ |
| Request to Pay | ✓ |
| Open API | ◐ |
| Alias/Proxy | — |