Bank of England Restores CHAPS Payment System After Swift Outage

The Bank of England experienced a temporary outage of its CHAPS interbank payment system due to a problem at Swift. The outage was resolved, with all transactions expected to settle by the end of the day. Retail payments were unaffected, and the issue was not cyber-related.

The Bank of England announced on Thursday that its CHAPS interbank payment system, which processes over 360 billion pounds ($467 billion) daily, experienced a temporary outage. The disruption was attributed to an issue at Swift, the Belgium-based organization responsible for secure international banking communications.

The Bank confirmed that the third-party supplier had resolved the problem, and CHAPS payments were functioning normally again. It was highlighted that retail payment systems, including debit cards and ATMs, were not impacted by the disruption.

While most Britons interact with CHAPS for significant transactions like house purchases, the system plays a crucial role in settling over 90% of sterling payments by value, handling bank transactions, payments to suppliers, and tax authorities. Swift clarified that the incident was operational and not cyber-related, and their technical teams restored impacted services successfully.

(With inputs from agencies.)