'Real time' transaction updates on bank statements will become a reality, thanks to the new Faster Payments Service.
Britain's new payments service is undergoing a final tune-up prior to its launch next week, APACS has announced.
The new Faster Payments Service, which is due to be officially rolled out next Tuesday by all major UK banks, aims to improve the speed at which money transacted is removed from and deposited into accounts. It is anticipated that they will appear on bank statements in real time.
The change was partially necessitated by the increasing use among consumers of internet banking, which has allowed them to check their accounts more often than they would through visiting branches or using ATMs. Figures from APACS show that there were 27.5 million users of online banking by last year, almost one in two of the total population.
By 2017, this figure is anticipated to climb to 40.9 million, making the need to introduce near-instant updates of transactions for the convenience of customers more pressing still.
Paul Smee at APACS commented: "The final part of this enormously complex project has been to test the new system in a live environment. This week hundreds of penny payments have successfully been made between the participating banks.
"Although the initial rollout will be gradual, and some customers may not be using the new service immediately, we expect that in the coming months this will ramp up to enable large numbers of customers to benefit from it. After such substantial investment by the industry we'd like, in time, to see the new Faster Payments Service being used for all of the UK's internet, phone and standing order payments."
