Metro Bank joins Faster Payments Scheme
Metro Bank joins Faster Payments Scheme
UK-based Metro Bank says it has become the first high street bank to join the Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) since its launch.
Metro Bank now a fully operational participating financial provider of Faster Payments, the UK’s 24×7 real-time payment service.
Other recent applicants include Raphael’s Bank, FIS and VocaLink.
Metro Bank joins 12 other authorised direct participant of FPS. Around 400 payment services providers in the UK currently access FPS indirectly, via a sponsor bank.
The number of direct FPS participants is likely to double in the next 18 months.
Faster Payments’ research predicts the size of the UK real-time payments market is going to almost treble in the next five years, with annualised growth of 20% forecast, leading to 3.3 billion Faster Payments being sent in 2020 alone.
In another development, Metro Bank has recently gone live with a new digital banking system provided by Backbase. The bank has also teamed up with SETL and Deloitte to explore blockchain capabilities.
