What Faster Payments is
Faster Payments is the UK's real-time payment system for pounds, operated by Pay.UK. It has run since 2008 and is available day and night, every day of the year, for payments of up to £1 million, though each bank sets its own limits.
Banks, building societies and other payment providers connect to it directly or through another participant, and accounts are addressed by sort code and account number. Confirmation of Payee, also run by Pay.UK, checks the name on an account before money is sent. Banks, fintechs and businesses paying people in the UK rely on it, which is why it is the sterling rail our accounts and payouts modules connect to.
What it does in your platform
Accounts & IBANs
Moves pounds in and out of UK accounts in real time. Where your partner issues UK account details, salaries and transfers arrive by sort code and account number, payments leave the app at any hour, and Confirmation of Payee checks the name before a customer sends.
Payouts
Pays out pounds to UK accounts in real time, at any hour of any day. A payment that cannot be applied comes back with a reason and is matched to the payout it belongs to.
How the connection works
Faster Payments is reached through a participant: your UK bank or banking-as-a-service partner. The module sends payments through the partner's API, and the partner's webhooks report incoming payments and the outcome of outgoing ones.
A payout is due
A seller is owed their weekly earnings in pounds. The module screens the payout and holds the amount in the ledger.
The name is confirmed
Confirmation of Payee checks the seller's name against the sort code and account number, and answers match, close match or no match.
The partner sends it
The module instructs the payment through the partner's API, and the partner submits it to Faster Payments.
Paid in real time
The seller's bank accepts it in real time. The partner's webhook confirms it, and the ledger books the payout.
Or it comes back
If the account cannot take the payment, it comes back with a reason. The module matches it to the payout, reverses it in the ledger and shows the reason in the backoffice.
Next to other rails
Faster Payments carries pounds inside the UK. The Payouts module sends euros over SEPA and SEPA Instant, and other currencies over their own local rails or SWIFT, choosing the rail for each payout by country, currency and amount.
Your UK partner can change without your app changing: the module talks to banking-as-a-service partners through one interface, and with your own licence it connects to your sponsor bank and scheme access directly. Past payments stay in the ledger.
When Faster Payments fits best
A strong fit when
- Your customers live, work or get paid in the UK.
- You need sterling payouts that arrive in real time, at night and at weekends too.
- You want names checked before money goes out, with Confirmation of Payee.
Also worth a look
- SEPA Instant for customers who are paid in euros.
- SWIFT for payments from the UK to banks abroad.
How we get you live
The partner
We help you choose a UK bank or banking-as-a-service partner that gives you Faster Payments and Confirmation of Payee, and get the account in place.
The limits
We set payment limits and approval steps with you, within the limits your partner allows.
The keys
The partner's API keys and webhook secrets go into your platform's secrets and nowhere else.
A full test run
Payments, name checks and returns are tested in the partner's sandbox where it has one, then a first live payment is followed into the ledger.
