Faster payment arrived late - which bank is at fault?

Mikeyorks

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

Hi thanks for the replies. Having spoken to WestBrom they told me it takes longer (end of next working day after transfer takes place) because they are not a clearing bank.

It's because they're an 'agency'. Which is why a lot of Building Societies took ages to hook up to Faster Payments. It adds extra steps and therefore takes longer. Bit like mistletoe .... they lock onto one of the main players but have to build links across. And it's the data across the links that add the time.

In the (long) run up to FP there was a useful site called - astonishingly - 'Faster Payments'. And which had a flow chart of how agencies would function. Having studied it - I wasn't surprised most left it to the death to sign up. Unfortunately the site was cleared out a couple of years ago as it was a better reference point than anywhere else.

There's a poor description of it here (agency bank) :

http://www.vocalink.com/infrastructure/faster-payments-service/financial-institutions.aspx

barak

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

....They did admit that a FP from one clearing bank to another would go through within hours and usually instantly. I asked why some building societies can do fast faster payments and was told that they would be clearing banks themselves. Rather confusing given that a BS is not a bank.

As has been said, it can take until the next day.

"...they would be clearing banks themselves..."? That's not true either. The last time I looked, the only Building Society apparently posing as a clearing bank was Nationwide, and others can do faster payments. I did one last week from Coventry BS.

http://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/membership/-/page/list_of_members/

I've a feeling that the fastest may be from clearing bank to clearing bank. I do regular FPs from First Direct to Barclays and when I checked one it had transferred by the time I had logged off First Direct and in to Barclays.

MiserlyMartin

Yes astonishingly, a FP from Lloyds to Santander took 10 seconds!

PhoenixDF

Faster Payments are debited from the originator's account with immediate effect and moved to the Banks suspense account from where they are sent in batches throughout the day to the destination account.

The regulations do state that the Banks do have up to the end of the following day to credit the destination account - so although some transactions may be done in a matter of minutes, it depends what time the batch is sent i.e. if you sent a payment 10 mins before the next batch is due then the payment will only take 10 mins but if its not for another hour then obviously it will take longer.

Most of the UK Bigger Banks (Santander, Barclays, HSBC etc) have suspense accounts for lower limit transactions, so if you are only sending £1-£500 (sometimes a few thousand) the payment will be made instantly as it is going directly to the destination account without any further security or audit checks.

Your payment was made correctly, within the timescales dictated by the Payments Council - but on a separate note the payment wouldn't have been made via a Direct Debit method - that's just some useless guff they've told you. My source of knowledge is from working in the Banking sector and Payments office.

pmduk

Natwest to barclays and vice versa are usually pretty instantaneous.

Chris2000

barak wrote: »

"...they would be clearing banks themselves..."? That's not true either. The last time I looked, the only Building Society apparently posing as a clearing bank was Nationwide, and others can do faster payments. I did one last week from Coventry BS.

Coventry can do faster payments but they also seem to use this agency system. I've tried to do a same-day FP from my Coventry current account by logging on before 8am but it still didn't arrive until the next working day.