FIA has responded to the Bank of England's consultation paper on extending RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours.
The Bank of England is consulting on proposals to extend the operating hours of its RTGS and CHAPS payment systems, potentially moving towards a 22x5, 22x6 or longer-term near-continuous settlement model. The initiative is intended to support more efficient cross-border payments, improve liquidity and collateral management, facilitate the settlement of margin obligations across time zones, and accommodate emerging innovations such as tokenised deposits, stablecoins and other digital asset settlement models.
FIA broadly supports the objective of extending settlement availability where this delivers clear benefits for market resilience, risk management and competitiveness. However, FIA stresses that payment infrastructure cannot be considered in isolation. The benefits of extended settlement hours depend on the readiness of the wider ecosystem, including clearing members, banks, central counterparties, custodians, liquidity providers, treasury and operations functions.
Extending settlement hours without corresponding access to funding, collateral mobility, operational support and risk-management resources could create new operational and liquidity risks. FIA therefore advocates a phased and evidence-based approach, prioritising a 22x5 weekday extension before considering weekend or near-24/7 settlement, supported by robust cost-benefit analysis, industry testing, and close coordination across all affected market participants.
Read the full response here.
