LONDON - The wait for the acknowledgement of electronic transactions could be over after payments association APACS announced that all major banks in Britain had agreed to cooperate on a new system that clears all transactions on the same day.
Under the current system, customers who receive money over the Internet or the phone have to wait for around three days before the same is reflected in their accounts. However, speedy electronic transfer is the norm in the rest of Europe and with this new agreement British banks will join their European counterparts in speedy processing.
"Customers will have the convenience of moving money between accounts or paying bills on the same day within a few hours any day of the week," said APACS chief executive Paul Smee. The organization has been under pressure to speed up this whole process by the Office of Fair Trading.
Banks have time until the end to 2007 to take steps for the smooth implementation of the scheme, which is expected to cost £65 million for computer systems alone. There will be no change in the cheques clearing system of which banks deal with 2.1 billion each year as compared to 400 million electronic transfers.
"Crucially the service will also be available all day, every day and on any day of the week," commented Smee on the same day clearance system. APACS said that electronic transfers currently comprise 7 percent of all volumes, but with the advent of new banking systems, this number is all set to speed up phenomenally.
Hence, it wants banks to be prepared to deal with the increased volumes in the best possible way. "Successfully delivering this new system by 2007 is going to be extremely challenging but the industry is confident it will be achieved," Smee concluded. The two year gap is necessary to make the systems foolproof against fraud, APACS said.
Posted
on : Sun, 18 Dec 2005 14:05 GMT | Banking News
By : Rob Davis
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