The central Faster Payments infrastructure is being built by Immediate Payments Limited - a joint venture between Link and Voca - and will provide near real time payments processing for online and telephone banking transactions when it is launched in November 2007. Standing orders will be processed on the same day, rather than the three days it currently takes.

Thales says the majority of banks involved in the initial roll out of the scheme have implemented its HSM 8000 device, which provides the cryptographic facilities necessary for securing transactions in financial networks.

Paul Meadowcroft, head of transaction security for the e-security activities of Thales, says sales of the HSM device have increased by 100% in the past year.