On 18 April 2018, the Bank of England (BoE) announced that the first non-bank payment service provider (PSP) joined a UK payment system settling in central bank money. TransferWise, a FCA regulated PSP facilitating the international transfer of payments, is now a direct participant in the UK’s Faster Payments system. A key component of this work involved the BoE extending settlement account access in its Real-Time Gross Settlement system to non-bank PSPs such as TransferWise.

Andrew Bailey, Chief Executive of the FCA said:

“This is a significant step forward for the FCA. Connecting non-bank payment firms to the payments systems promotes innovation and competition in payments and financial services more widely – two of our key objectives. Our approach to supervising firms like Transfer Wise means that they can safely access the BoE’s payment systems and so contribute to a thriving and dynamic marketplace for UK consumers. We are pleased that we have been able to work closely with our regulatory authority colleagues to achieve this.”