The UK Payments Council has "relaunched its Sort Code Checker online tool, extending it beyond Faster Payments to cover Bacs, CHAPS, cheques and paper credits. By inputting the sort code of the account a payment is being sent to, a customer can see whether the account can receive a Faster Payment, Bacs Credit or CHAPS payment. Customers will also be able to see if an account allows a Direct Debit instruction to be set up and if a cheque or paper credit can be paid into the account through the clearings. The Checker, which stores all the UK’s 20,000 sort codes, can be found on the UK Payments website." READ MORE »

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson takes a look at the UK's Faster Payments Service. Carol spoke with David McFarlane, Company Manager, CHAPS Clearing Company about FP - and said she was surprised by much of what he said: FP is not what you thought!

APACS has announced the volume and value figures for the first three days’ operation of the new Faster Payments Service, launched on Tuesday, May 27. "In total, between just after midnight on Tuesday 27th May and today at 12.45pm, 318,405 faster payments have been processed to a value of £200,127,682.03. This equates to around 90,000 payments a day, 3,750 payments an hour – one every second – with an average value of over £625 per payment." READ MORE »

APACS has confirmed that the infrastructure for the new Faster Payments Service is now live, with payments from midnight being processed through the new system. According to APACS, by 7 AM this morning 898 payments had been made with a value of £461,383.43. READ MORE »

APACS has published new materials to help customers wishing to benefit from the new Faster Payment Service as it begins its rollout on May 27th . APACS has produced a new, downloadable advice guide, How to use the Faster Payments Service , along with an online easy-to-use sort code checker. Customers can input any UK sort code to check whether it is able to receive Faster Payments. More sort codes will be added over the next few months as the service is rolled out. All these materials are available from www.apacs.org.uk. READ MORE »

In the UK, Barclaycard and InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) have announced the launch of the Priority Club Rewards Visa credit card. READ MORE »

APACS has confirmed plans for the launch of the new Faster Payments Service on May 27th. Beginning then, the FPS founding banks will be gradually implementing their own plans to deliver the new service to their customers. According to APACS, 'the new service will benefit customers by speeding up one-off payments made over the internet or by phone, reducing the current three-day clearing timescale to enable these payments to clear within hours, not days. For the very first time it will also be possible to make these payments all day every day.' READ MORE »

UK payment services companies Voca and LINK Interchange Network have announced their intention to merge to create VocaLINK with the combined company expected to handle over 8 billion payment transactions this year.

Eiger Systems has announced that its BANK WIZARD and BILLER WIZARD solutions have been enhanced to support banks implementing the UK Faster Payments initiative, which is designed to deliver same day clearing for electronic payments.