The Chaps Sterling clearing system, which celebrates its 25th birthday on February 9th, was created primarily to provide a same day service for high-value corporate payments.
Consumers, however, often use it when making house purchases, where a same-day service is required to enable completion. Each CHAPS payment is settled individually across settlement accounts at the Bank of England.
Up until May 2008, CHAPS Sterling offered the only alternative for making an immediate payment, regardless of whether your immediate payment was for £200,000 or £200. The launch of the Faster Payment Service offers an alternative because payments under £10,000 can now go through the new service. This clearly defines the roles for both services offering immediate payments - CHAPS Sterling is now the system responsible for transferring immediate high-value payments and Faster Payments for payments under £10,000.
David MacFarlane, CHAPS Company Manager, says: "CHAPS Sterling has proven itself as a robust and reliable payment system, which continues to successfully meets its objectives. We are delighted to celebrate this anniversary with the news that we will be welcoming a new member to the Scheme."