Domestic

Faster Payments (FPS)

A pound transfer that reaches the payee within seconds, around the clock — but the banks settle their net positions in central bank money later, on a deferred cycle. Instant for the customer, deferred-net for the banks.

Contributor Shubham Mathure14 July 2026

PAYMENTS SIGNAL · REFERENCE CARD

Actors

Riya (payer)customer
Bank Alfa (sending bank)bank
Faster Payments (Pay.UK)infrastructure
Nordbank (receiving bank)bank
Arjun (payee)customer
Bank of England (settlement)infrastructure

Messages

No standard message — a book / internal transfer.

The sequence

#	Step	Route	Kind
1	Instruction — Riya asks Bank Alfa to pay Arjun	Riya → Bank Alfa	message
2	Validate & screen — Bank Alfa checks the payment in real time	Bank Alfa	internal
3	Money out — Bank Alfa debits Riya	Bank Alfa	posting
4	Payment message — The payment goes through Faster Payments in real time	Bank Alfa → Faster Payments	message
5	Payment message — Nordbank receives the payment within seconds	Faster Payments → Nordbank	message
6	Money in — Nordbank validates and credits Arjun within seconds	Nordbank	posting
7	Funds usable — Arjun can spend the money immediately	Nordbank → Arjun	internal
8	Deferred net settlement — Later, the banks settle their net positions at the Bank of England	Faster Payments → Bank of England	settlement

Exception rails

Rail	Trigger	Where the money ends up	Next action
Over the limit: reroute via CHAPS	The payment is above the Faster Payments single-payment limit of GBP 1 million (or above Bank Alfa's own FPS limit), so it cannot go through Faster Payments and must take a different rail.	The payment is made in full through CHAPS instead of Faster Payments; the amount settles gross in central bank money. · Settled immediately and finally, payment-by-payment (RTGS) — not deferred and not netted as it would have been on FPS.	Bank Alfa — Bank Alfa confirms the CHAPS payment to Riya. For amounts within the limit, Faster Payments would have been the faster, cheaper choice.