Plans to reduce the three-day wait for clearance on electronic payments between banks have been announced by the Payments Systems Task Force. They have said that they will consider 3 options - a same day or next day service, a near-real time service or another system taking just 2-3 hours.
The Association for Payment Clearing Services has established an implementation group to consider how the new service will work in practice. They will have six months to report back. It is expected that the service will be implemented within two years of this date.
Our view
At last, our money that disappears for between three and ten days will only be gone for a few hours!