Bank of England outlines RTGS CHAPS forum priorities for tokenisation and longer settlement hours

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RTGS CHAPS forum priorities

Highlights

The Bank of England's RTGS CHAPS Industry Forum on 13 October 2026 advanced tokenisation projects and confirmed a synchronization demonstration for atomic settlement in November 2026.
The Bank postponed its standards release following delays to Swift Standards Release 2026, emphasizing the ongoing importance of mandating structured addresses for industry-wide benefits.
Industry feedback supports extending RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours, with participants highlighting impacts on liquidity, operating costs, and operational resilience ahead of the next meeting in January.

Payments infrastructure agenda and next milestones

As reported by the Bank of England, the second RTGS CHAPS Industry Forum meeting on 13 October 2026 followed an earlier session in June and covered several workstreams tied to the future development of the UK's real-time gross settlement and CHAPS systems.

The central bank said discussions included tokenisation, where shared ledgers could improve efficiency, and ongoing work with HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority to support live activity in the area. Forum members also received an update on synchronization functionality for RTGS, which could help enable atomic settlement of transactions, with a demonstration planned for November 2026.

The meeting also addressed delays to the Swift Standards Release 2026, which have prompted the Bank to postpone its own standards release. Participants said mandating structured addresses remains important for delivering benefits across the industry.

Industry implications for liquidity, costs and resilience

Feedback from a joint call for input shows support across the industry for extending RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours, although members hold different views on how such changes should be implemented.

Discussions focused on the operational effects of longer hours, including liquidity demands, incident management and operating costs. The forum also reviewed contingency arrangements as part of a broader focus on operational resilience during disruptions, with the next meeting expected in January.

Our earlier article on the Bank of England’s push for “bare metal” cyber recovery planning explained why regulators want banks to be able to restore critical services even if core technology is compromised. We noted Sarah Breeden’s warning that AI is amplifying the scale and complexity of cyber attacks, making end-to-end recovery capabilities and stronger operational resilience a growing priority across the financial system.

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