CHAPS, the UK's same-day, high-value payment system for sterling transactions, has announced that it will extend its operating hours to 18:00 from summer 2016, with an exact date to be announced later this year.

This is one hour and 40 minutes later than the system's current closing time and will bring it into line with normal business hours as well as provide more overlap with other financial markets and counterparties in other time zones, such as the US and Canada.



CHAPS processes 92% of sterling payments in value, 78% of which are wholesale financial payments, both domestic and international. 



This decision was made after an 18 month review by the Bank of England, owner of the real time gross settlement (RTGS) system that settles CHAPS payments. The extended hours will also apply to other users of the RTGS system, including CREST, the UK’s securities settlement system.

Mark Hale, CEO at CHAPS said: “Our consultation with the financial services community and the users of CHAPS and Euroclear UK & Ireland, the operators of CREST, demonstrated that their ability to make high-value sterling payments later in the business day would provide tangible benefits.”