The Bank of England selects Accenture as the tech delivery partner for RTGS renewal

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The Bank of England (BofE) has confirmed that Accenture has been appointed as the Technology Delivery Partner for the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) service Renewal Programme. The appointment follows the procurement process that began in February 2019 and will see BofE work with Accenture for developing the payments service. The Bank has been operating RTGS since 1996 for offering an immediate way for banks to exchange payments.

Victoria Cleland, Executive Director for Banking, Payments, and Innovation at the Bank of England, said, “This is a key milestone in our ambitious and exciting Programme to renew RTGS. I look forward to working with Accenture, and with the industry, to develop and deliver a system that is fit for the future, supporting continued innovation in the UK and global payments.”

According to BofE, the vision for the renewed RTGS service is to increase resilience and access, offer wider interoperability, improve user functionality, and strengthen the end-to-end risk management of the UK high-value payment system. The renewed system will start to be delivered in 2022.

“The Renewal Programme is a key priority not just for the Bank but also the wider UK payments industry. It will support a resilient financial system that protects the UK’s financial and monetary stability in the years to come. The renewed RTGS service will be designed not only to benefit everyone in the country who makes payments but to keep the UK at the leading edge of payments innovation,” Cleland concluded.

Through RTGS, the Bank provides settlement to direct participants of CHAPS, CREST, five retail payment systems (Bacs, Image Clearing System (ICS) for cheques, Faster Payments, LINK and Visa Europe) and the Bank’s Note Circulation Scheme.

RTGS is also the mechanism through which the Bank implements monetary policy decisions, and provides liquidity to the UK’s financial system.