TransferWise gets direct access to UK Faster Payments Scheme
Kristo Käärmann, TransferWise
TransferWise has become the “first” tech firm to get direct access to the UK’s Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) as technical partner to Raphaels Bank.
TransferWise and the bank sent their first Faster Payment as part of pre-launch test activity. Later this summer, TransferWise customers’ transfers will be “processed instantly” after the firm has received the payment from the customer’s bank.
Kristo Käärmann, TransferWise co-founder and CEO, says: “There’s no reason why transferring money overseas should be any different from sending an email, and integration for a non-bank into the Faster Payments Scheme is a stepping stone towards making that happen.”
TransferWise says its customers will now have an “uninterrupted 24/7 payments service and no longer be subject to occasional bank downtime that can delay payments”.
The integration is due to the Faster Payment Scheme Limited’s (FPSL) New Access Model. This initiative was created by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), which was created in 2014 with the objective of opening access to UK payment systems.
Raphaels Bank will be the “first new direct settling participant” of FPSL since its launch in 2008.
Recently, and in a separate deal, Raphaels Bank partnered with ACI Worldwide opening up access to the FPS for financial institutions (FIs), including challenger banks and payment service providers (PSPs).
