Summary
Item 1: Introductions
In the chair’s absence, the meeting was chaired by the Bank’s Head of Payment Delivery, who noted this was the second RTGS CHAPS industry forum. Minutes of the June meeting had been published.
Item 2: Tokenisation workplan
The Bank provided a brief update on its approach to tokenisation and the work underway across the Bank, HM Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The Bank highlighted the potential for tokenisation to support greater efficiency through shared ledgers, enable new products and functionality, and potentially strengthen resilience. Work is underway considering the full lifecycle of tokenised assets, from issuance and use, through to payment and settlement.
The Bank noted that feedback to its joint call for input alongside the FCA showed a desire from industry to move beyond piloting the approach towards live activity. A cross-authority roadmap is planned for Q4 which will set out the work underway to support this transition, including work to enable digital asset issuance, collateral use and innovative settlement in central bank money. The RTGS initiatives covering extended settlement hours and synchronisation were highlighted as important contributors to this workplan.
Item 3: Extended RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours
The Bank provided an update on feedback received in response to its recently closed consultation on further extensions to RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours. Respondents had broadly supported the strategic direction and the use cases for longer settlement hours, though there was some difference of opinion on how this should be achieved. Notably responses indicated a preference for further weekday extensions before the addition of Sundays and bank holidays. The Bank has yet to reach conclusions on sequencing.
The Bank noted the work around extended hours involved three principal drivers: innovation; cross-border payment enhancement; and liquidity and risk management. Members discussed a number of issues that will need answering as the design develops including liquidity, optional participation, operating costs, incident management, planned downtime and operational support.
Key discussions focused on the appropriate approach to value-date rollover, including the relative merits of retaining the existing rollover (with CHAPS closing at 6pm) or aligning this more closely with the calendar day. The Bank acknowledged that further work is needed on this.
The Bank plans to publish a response to the extended hours consultation in early 2027.
In response to a question, the Bank confirmed that work on implementing CHAPS opening from 1.30am is already underway and progressing well. Initial estimates suggest around 20% of CHAPS payments by volume will settle before 6am.
Item 4: Synchronisation
The Bank provided an update on its work to introduce synchronisation functionality into RTGS. This would enable atomic settlement of external asset ledgers against sterling central bank money, conditional on all elements of a transaction settling together or not at all. Potential uses include both tokenised asset transactions and more traditional applications such as margin and collateral optimisation.
The Bank noted the need for ecosystem readiness and the challenges of scaling services. There was discussion of the practical arrangements needed to support a live service, including the role of synchronisation operators, participation, architecture, regulatory expectations and operating arrangements. The Bank is already working on many of these questions, and plans to publish relevant information in early 2027.
The Bank is also arranging a showcase event in November 2026 including demonstrations from the prospective synchronisation operators testing in the synchro lab, showing how their propositions using the synchronisation functionality can deliver value.
Item 5: Delay in standards releases
The Bank outlined that, following Swift’s decision to delay the Swift Standards Release 2026 due to concerns about readiness for the removal of unstructured address fields, it too had delayed the November 2026 RTGS Standards Release.
In the interests of both realising industry wide benefits from use of structured addresses, and to avoid being in this position again in future, the Bank wanted to understand early industry views on the possibility of mandating use of structured addresses via the CHAPS rulebook ahead of Swift (and CHAPS) formally retiring the unstructured address fields.
Members expressed support for exploring this further though noted further engagement with industry would be needed. All noted the work that had already been done to be ready for these changes, though noted, in particular, dependencies on customers to complete creditor address fields. There was broad support for mandating use of structured debtor addresses through rules, though continuing dependencies on improvements to the EISCD, the UK’s sort-code directory, were noted for intermediary address fields. Interoperability with Swift channels was raised as a key concern, but this needed to be balanced with the need to make progress. Members also mentioned the need to take decisions on this promptly given budget cycles. Members also flagged the work in Pay.UK on cross-border payments in FPS and noted the need for any wider implications on FPS to be understood.
Item 6: Operational resilience
The Bank discussed work on settlement contingency arrangements, including the challenges associated with processing payments when normal connectivity is unavailable such as during a Swift outage. The Bank noted that contingency arrangements need to consider the end-to-end payment journey, including how instructions are provided to the Bank and how confirmation of settlement is provided. The Bank set out the current arrangements, noting that these were small in scale and would only cover the most critical payments. Attendees noted that the Bank could also call a non-settlement day in the event of disruption.
Members highlighted the limitations of manual processing and the benefits of automation in developing arrangements capable of operating at greater scale. There was also discussion of the balance between developing tactical contingency arrangements in the nearer term and a more strategic longer-term solution.
The Bank will convene further discussions on this topic – both possible short-medium term improvements, but also longer-term arrangements.
Item 7: Next steps
The next Forum meeting is expected to take place in January.
Attendees
Members:
Richard Windram, Deputy Chair (Bank of England)
Naresh Aggarwal (Association of Corporate Treasurers)
Peter Smith, alternate (Coventry Building Society)
Other attendees:
Michael D’Souza – Independent Member of RTGS CHAPS Board
Noel Gordon – Senior Independent Member of the RTGS CHAPS Board
Sharon Barber – Independent Member of RTGS CHAPS Board
Bank of England standing attendees, secretariat and presenters for specific items
Apologies:
Paul Miles (Euroclear UK & International)
Vishal Majithia (Coventry Building Society– alternate sent)