As it approaches its 30th anniversary in February 2014, Chaps Clearing Company Ltd (also known as Chaps Co), the UK's same day high value payment system, is pleased to announce that Handelsbanken (Svenska Handelsbanken AB (Publ)) has become a shareholder and Direct Participant in Chaps.
This brings the total number of CHAPS Direct Participants to twenty.
Handelsbanken is the first of six new Direct Participants to join CHAPS between now and the end of 2015; the other five new Direct Participants will be confirmed over the next year.
Handelsbanken is a local relationship bank with a network of 166 branches across Great Britain. Originating in Sweden in 1871, Handelsbanken is present in twenty-four countries worldwide. In Great Britain, it provides banking services for both individual and corporate customers.
Phil Kenworthy, Managing Director of CHAPS Co said:
"We are delighted Handelsbanken has joined us as a shareholder and full Direct Participant in CHAPS. Alongside providing them with full control over their High Value Sterling payments and the benefits accruing from the Liquidity Savings Mechanism[1], this gives them a direct voice in the strategic development of the CHAPS system in the coming years."
This announcement comes a month after CHAPS launched its first CHAPS Market Report. Published as part of CHAPS Co's aim to reach a wider audience, the Report provides analysis on CHAPS payments in 2012 and the first half of 2013, and forecasts volumes levels and trends until 2022. A summary is available from http://www.chapsco.co.uk/media/publications/.
[1] The Liquidity Savings Mechanism was introduced in April 2013 to reduce intraday liquidity across the CHAPS membership. It has been achieved via software, that runs on the Bank of England's RTGS system, to settle pairs or groups of CHAPS payments in batches simultaneously to 'offset' their liquidity needs against one another.