Sunday, 22 December 2024
Raphaels Bank joins Faster Payments
- Raphaels becomes first new direct participant of scheme since launch
Raphaels Bank has become the first new fully operational participating financial provider of Faster Payments, the UK’s 24/7 real-time payment service.
Raphaels Bank is the 12th direct participant of the Faster Payments Scheme, and the first new bank to connect directly to the payment system since it was launched in 2008. Raphaels is using its participation to act as a sponsor - enabling other payment service providers (PSPs) to access true, 24/7 real-time payments via its connection.
Customers of international payments provider TransferWise will become the first-end users to benefit from Raphaels’ Faster Payments capability, with the first TransferWise customer payments being processed in August 2016.
Miles Roberts, Chief Executive of Raphaels Bank, said:
“Raphaels is enormously proud to be the first new member of Faster Payments since its inception in 2008, a clear demonstration of our commitment to enabling innovation in payments and opening up access to the expanding Fintech and Payments industry.”
Craig Tillotson, Chief Executive of Faster Payments, said:
“I’d like to warmly welcome Raphaels Bank as a direct participant in our world-class 24/7 real-time payments system – it’s great news for their customers and the payments sector more widely.
“Raphaels is the first new joiner of many. Their membership underlines the revolutionary contribution our New Access Model is starting to make by enabling payment service providers of all shapes and sizes to offer their customers the real-time, 24/7 payments they demand.”
The importance of offering real-time payments will only increase: independent research commissioned by Faster Payments1 predicts the size of the UK real-time payments market is likely 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.
Open access to real-time payments in the UK is moving from concept to reality with Raphaels Bank the first of a new wave of PSPs to join Faster Payments as a direct participant. Three more PSPs, including Starling Bank, are on course to join before the end of 2016, while five fintechs2 have been awarded the ‘trust mark’ certificate required to act as a technical aggregators and provide direct technical access to Faster Payments.
Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker
