Bank of England’s CHAPS System Hits Temporary Glitch
The Bank of England faced a brief but high-stakes outage in its CHAPS interbank payment system on Thursday. CHAPS handles over £360 billion daily, making it critical for big-money transfers. Thankfully, the Bank expects all transactions to clear by day’s end.
Swift System Blamed for Payment Delay
The disruption was linked to a snag at Swift, the Belgium-based company that manages secure international bank messaging. Swift confirmed the issue caused delays but assured, “This incident was not cyber-related, and our technical teams have successfully restored impacted services.”
“We are pleased to confirm that the third-party supplier has restored service following their earlier issues, and CHAPS payments are settling as normal,” said the Bank of England.
Retail Payments Unscathed, but Big Transfers at Risk
Everyday retail payments, like debit cards and ATM withdrawals, sailed through unaffected. But high-value transactions — including house purchases widely reliant on CHAPS — risk being stalled during outages. The system handles 90% of sterling payments by value, including money market, foreign exchange, and urgent business payments to suppliers and tax authorities.
CHAPS Has a Rocky History
CHAPS isn’t new to tech troubles. Similar breakdowns hit in August last year and famously in 2014 when the Bank of England’s underlying Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system failed for hours, rattling financial markets.
This latest incident highlights ongoing risks from dependence on third-party tech providers. The Bank has previously warned regulators to avoid over-reliance on external infrastructure for crucial financial services.
