FairFX granted settlement accounts at Bank of England

FairFX has announced that, through its subsidiary Spectrum Payment Services (SPS), it has been granted settlement accounts with the Bank of England and, in turn, has become a Direct Participant of the UK Faster Payments Scheme (FPS).

FPS is one the fastest growing UK payment systems and the only real-time 24/7 service that is in increasing demand from business and personal customers using both desktop and mobile applications. The company’s direct connection to FPS has been enabled by the New Access Model that extended access to Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) accounts held at the Bank of England, as part of a wide-ranging effort to inject more competition and innovation into the UK’s payments systems.

FairFX is the fourth non-bank to become a directly connected and directly settling member of FPS. Furthermore, with access to RTGS accounts, FairFX is now eligible to join other UK Payment Schemes such as BACS and CHAPS. Alongside this development, FairFX will own its sort code, which, in conjunction with its SWIFT membership, means it can now create IBANs for customers with no other financial institution involved in the process. This will benefit the company through enhanced economics via reduced cost per transaction coupled with enhanced customer acquisition and retention via instant payments that is designed to enhance the user experience and satisfaction.