The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has agreed to push back the introduction of Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) for sweeping services by six months after accepting that the country's big banks won't meet the target date of January.
The CMA mandated sweeping - the automatic transfer of money between a customer’s own accounts - in July over the objections of some of the country's biggest banks.
VRPs allow customers to connect authorised payments providers to their bank account so that they can make payments on the customer’s behalf within agreed parameters.
Initially, the UK's nine biggest banks - the CMA9 - were given until 31 January to implement VRPs and allow third party providers who are using VRPs to enable their customers to move money from their current accounts to other accounts.
However, earlier this month Open Banking Implementation Entity boss Charlotte Crosswell wrote to the CMA warning that most, if not all, of the CMA9 do not have a realistic chance of meeting the target date.
The CMA has agreed a revised timetable that requires the banks to provide a detailed delivery plan by January, and then to start TPP testing and validation in the first quarter before completing testing in a live environment by July so that they are ready to make the standard generally available.