The Bank of England has resolved a global payments issue that affected its CHAPS service and caused possible delays to “high-value and time-sensitive payments” such as house purchases.
The central bank announced there was an issue on its website earlier today, and said it was “mindful of the impact this is likely to have”. The Bank of England said it was working with a third-party supplier, the industry and other authorities to “resolve the issue as promptly as possible”.
In an update released at 4.30pm today, the Bank of England said: “We are pleased to confirm that the third-party supplier has restored service following their earlier issues, and CHAPS payments are settling as normal.
“We expect that all payments received by the bank today will be settled by the end of the day.”
The central bank said anyone concerned about a CHAPS payment they planned to make or receive today should get in touch with their bank or other payment service provider.
Retail payment systems were unaffected, the Bank of England said, meaning people were able to continue to use cashpoints, card payments and bank transfers as normal.
CHAPS is the high-value payment system used by the central bank and it is open from 6am to 6pm from Monday to Friday. Customer payments must be made by 5.40pm. The Bank of England says “several thousand” financial institutions use the CHAPS system, including high street lenders.
Shekina is the deputy editor at Mortgage Solutions and commercial editor at Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions. She has nearly eight years of experience in the B2B publishing market, having previously covered the hospitality, retail, pet, accounting and jewellery sectors.
Shekina has worked for Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions for almost five years. Here, she covers the market’s breaking news stories, engages with professionals in the sector, and oversees any commercially agreed content in partnership with mortgage-related companies.
This includes presenting webinars and hosting roundtable discussions on developing themes in the mortgage sector.
She is an NCTJ-trained journalist and was nominated for the Headline Money Awards Mortgage Journalist of the Year in 2021.
In her spare time, Shekina likes to read, travel, listen to music and socialise with friends.
She currently reports on current events in the mortgage market and liaises with financial clients to produce sponsored content.
Follow her on Twitter at @ShekinaMS
