CHAPS
CHAPS is the UK's same-day payment system for large sterling transfers, run by the Bank of England. It's what your solicitor uses to send the money on completion day when you buy a house, and what you use to pay a big deposit or buy a car. It has no maximum, the payment can't be reversed once sent, and it arrives the same working day if your bank gets it before its cut-off, usually mid-afternoon. Unlike Faster Payments, it isn't always free: high-street banks charge from nothing online to £25 in a branch.
| Country | United Kingdom (GB) |
| What it is | The Bank of England's high-value, same-day sterling payment system, settled one payment at a time in central bank money |
| Run by | The Bank of England, as operator since 13 November 2017; over 35 direct participant banks, and thousands of others through them |
| Since | Operated by the private CHAPS Co until 2017; on ISO 20022 messages since 19 June 2023 |
| Cost | Set by your bank: £0 online at Barclays, £15 at Nationwide, £21–£23 at NatWest, £25 at Lloyds and Santander (Oct 2026) |
| Typical limit | No minimum or maximum in the system |
| Hours | 6am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, except bank holidays in England and Wales; customer payments by 5.40pm at the Bank, earlier at your bank |
| Reaches | Any UK bank account that can take CHAPS, in pounds sterling |
| Code on paper? | No. You pay with a sort code and account number; there is no CHAPS QR code or barcode |
How CHAPS came to be what it is
From a members' club to the central bank. Until November 2017, CHAPS was run by the CHAPS Clearing Company (CHAPS Co), a private company owned by its member banks. The Bank of England already settled the payments in its Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, first introduced in 1996, and on 13 November 2017 it took over running the scheme itself, after concluding that "financial stability would be enhanced" by doing so [4] [21]. Today the Bank lists more than 35 direct participants: the high-street banks (Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander UK, Nationwide's Clydesdale and Virgin Money, TSB, the Co-operative Bank and others), international and custody banks, and newer firms such as ClearBank and Modulr. Several thousand other institutions send CHAPS payments through one of them [1].
A new message format and a new engine. CHAPS moved to the ISO 20022 messaging standard on 19 June 2023 [5], replacing the Swift MT messages it used before [22]. On 28 April 2025 the Bank switched RTGS to a new core ledger and settlement engine, called RT2, which closed its renewal programme [3].
The numbers. The Bank of England publishes them [2]:
| When | CHAPS |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 52.7 million payments, then a record |
| 2025 | A record 53.3 million payments (210,482 a day), worth £93.9 trillion, up 7.3% |
| September 2026 | 4.6 million payments worth £8.9 trillion over 22 working days; £406 billion a day, up 9.9% on a year earlier |
| Record day | 344,099 payments on Tuesday 2 April 2024, after the Easter bank holidays |
CHAPS is only 0.4% of UK payments by number but 91% of sterling payment value. Its payments aren't all huge: in 2025 the average was £1.8 million, but the median was £4,586, and 94% were for £1 million or less [2].
How to use it
Who uses it. The Bank of England says banks use CHAPS for money-market and foreign-exchange deals, companies for large supplier and tax payments, and "solicitors and conveyancers to complete housing and other property transactions". Individuals use it "to buy high-value items such as a car or pay a deposit for a house" [1].
Sending a CHAPS payment. How you send one depends on your bank:
- Online: Barclays lets personal customers send CHAPS in Online Banking, under "Move money" then "Same-day payment (CHAPS)" [11]. Nationwide has "Make a payment using CHAPS" in its internet bank, approved with a card-reader code [16].
- In a branch only: at Lloyds you have to visit a branch [14], and at NatWest a same-day CHAPS payment is arranged in a branch, or by phone for Premier customers [15]. HSBC takes them in branch, by telephone banking or by post [12].
- What to bring: the payee's full name, sort code and account number, and a reference; in a branch, your debit card and ID such as a passport or driving licence [15] [17]. Nationwide also asks for the payee's address and bank name [16]. Expect questions: NatWest says it may ask what the payment is for "and any evidence of this" [15].
Buying a house. Your deposit or completion money usually goes to your solicitor's or conveyancer's account, and on completion day they send the purchase money on by CHAPS [1]. When you send a property payment yourself, your bank will ask what it's for: Nationwide's internet bank asks "Is this payment property related?" and then the purpose [16]. That answer travels with the payment. Since 1 May 2025 the Bank of England has required a purpose code on CHAPS property payments sent through the banks' own channels, such as PDEP (property deposit) and PCOM (property completion payment) [6].
Receiving one. Give the payer your sort code, account number and name as it appears on the account. Santander charges nothing to receive a CHAPS payment [17].
Once it's gone, it's gone. CHAPS transfers are "irrevocable" between the banks [1]. Barclays lets you cancel or change a CHAPS payment only while it hasn't left your account, for a £20 fee [11].
Limits, fees and cut-off times
The system itself has "no minimum or maximum payment limit" [1]. Fees and cut-offs are each bank's own. For personal customers, in October 2026:
| Bank | Fee to send | Same-day cut-off | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barclays | Free online (Personal and Premier); £25 by phone; £20 to cancel or change | 5pm | Online, branch, phone [11] |
| HSBC UK | Free from 4 November 2025, says its charges page [12]; its terms effective 6 July 2026 still list £17 [13] | 3.45pm by phone, 4.45pm other channels [13] | Branch, phone, post |
| Lloyds Bank | £25 | 4.25pm | Branch only [14] |
| NatWest | £23 to another bank, £21 to another NatWest account | 3.59pm in branch; 2pm by phone (Premier) | Branch [15] |
| Nationwide | £15 (FlexAccount, FlexDirect, FlexPlus) | 3pm | Online, branch [16] |
| Santander UK | £25 | 1pm by phone, 3pm in branch | Phone, branch [17] |
HSBC's two pages disagree, so ask HSBC before you pay. A request after the cut-off, or at a weekend or on a bank holiday, normally goes the next working day [11].
Do you need CHAPS at all? Often not. Faster Payments is free and runs all day, every day, but each bank caps it (GB report). Santander allows up to £100,000 in 24 hours by Faster Payments [17], and Lloyds up to £250,000 a day in a branch or £25,000 online [14]. NatWest's online limit for personal customers is £20,000 a working day [15]. CHAPS is for an amount above your bank's limit, or a payment that must land on a set day, such as a house completion.
The Bank's own hours. CHAPS opens at 6am and closes at 6pm for bank-to-bank payments; customer payments must reach it by 5.40pm [1]. The banks charge you; the Bank of England charges the banks, 48.7p per payment sent in 2026 (42.7p in 2025) plus an annual participation fee [10].
Limits change; check your bank's current terms.
Paying businesses and big purchases
CHAPS isn't a checkout. You can't pay with it in a shop or online store; you pay a business's account directly, by sort code and account number. The Bank of England names its main uses as suppliers, taxes, property and high-value items such as cars [1]. Business accounts can cost more: Barclays charges Business Banking customers £15 for an online CHAPS payment [11].
Longer hours are coming, but not for your branch. On 24 February 2026 the Bank of England decided to move the start of CHAPS settlement from 6am to 1.30am, aiming for September 2027. Banks can choose whether to take part. The evening close isn't changing [9]. The Bank's longer-term aim is "near 24x7 settlement" around the turn of the decade [8]. Nothing in the decision says your bank will take CHAPS payments at night or at weekends.
Paying across borders
CHAPS is a sterling system between UK accounts. It still carries a lot of international money: when a sterling payment comes from abroad, or goes abroad, the banks in the chain often pass it through CHAPS. In 2025 at least 51% of CHAPS payments by number and 43% by value were cross-border in this sense [2]. Moving to ISO 20022 lined CHAPS up with the message standard used for cross-border payments worldwide [5]. For you, an international transfer is a separate product with its own fees; the country report covers receiving money from abroad (GB report).
Is there a CHAPS QR code?
No. CHAPS has no QR code, barcode or other scannable code. You pay with the payee's name, sort code and account number, typed into your bank's online banking or written on a branch form [14] [16].
What a CHAPS payment does carry is an ISO 20022 message. Banks send each payment as an ISO 20022 message over the Swift network [1] [5]. A customer payment is a pacs.008 and a payment between financial institutions a pacs.009 [8]. The Bank of England is adding more required data in stages [3] [6]:
- Since 1 May 2025: purpose codes on property payments and on payments between financial institutions, and Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) on the second kind.
- November 2026, postponed: unstructured postal addresses were due to be rejected. On 27 August 2026 the Bank deferred its whole November 2026 standards release, because Swift had delayed its own, and gave no new date [7].
- Planned for November 2027: structured remittance data, and purpose codes on every CHAPS payment.
None of this is something you scan. When you see a QR code on a UK invoice, it's not CHAPS: the UK has no national payment QR, and such a code is usually an Open Banking QR link to a payment firm's page (GB report). A UK bill also doesn't carry Europe's EPC QR code for bank transfers.
Safety: conveyancing fraud
The scam that targets CHAPS-sized payments is conveyancing fraud, also called payment diversion fraud. City of London Police and Action Fraud warned in October 2025 of a rise in it: criminals pretend to be your solicitor or estate agent, often after getting into the email chain, and send "new" bank details so that your deposit or completion money goes to them [20]. Their advice:
- Get your solicitor's bank details in person or by phone at the start, and ask that any change is told to you in person, by phone or by letter.
- An email or text that changes bank details means stop. Ring your solicitor on a number you already have and check.
- Protect your email with a strong, separate password and two-step verification.
- If it happens, call your bank at once on the number on your card, and report it to Action Fraud.
You may get your money back. Since 7 October 2024, banks must refund victims of authorised push payment (APP) scams paid by CHAPS, as for Faster Payments [18]. The cap is £85,000 a claim. Report within 13 months; your bank may deduct an excess of up to £100, though not from vulnerable customers. Above £85,000 you can take the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service, whose own limit is £430,000 [19]. From 7 October 2024 to the end of May 2025, 31 CHAPS claims worth £1.8 million qualified, and all but one were refunded in full. Six were over £85,000, and the Bank of England saw "no pressing case" to raise the cap [3]. With a house deposit, £85,000 may not cover what you send, so check the details before you pay.
CHAPS and the alternatives in the United Kingdom
| Way to pay | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CHAPS | House completions and deposits, car purchases, any payment above your Faster Payments limit or due on a set day | Same working day, no maximum, irrevocable; £0–£25 at the big banks |
| Faster Payments | Almost every other transfer by sort code and account number | Free, instant, 24/7, up to £1 million in the system but capped lower by each bank (GB report) |
| Bacs (Direct Debit, Direct Credit) | Regular bills, salaries | The Direct Debit Guarantee covers mistakes (GB report) |
| Open Banking QR | Paying a small business or an invoice from your bank app | Uses your bank's own payment limits; no national QR format |
| Cheque | Payees who still take them | Takes several days to process [14] |
Sources
- Bank of England, "CHAPS", read 20 Oct 2026. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/payments/chaps
- Bank of England, "Payment and settlement statistics", read 20 Oct 2026. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/payments/payment-and-settlement-statistics
- Bank of England, "Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system and CHAPS Annual Report 2024/25", 21 Aug 2025. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/report/2025/rtgs-and-chaps-annual-report-2024-25
- Bank of England, "Bank of England commences the direct delivery of the CHAPS service", 13 Nov 2017. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/2017/november/bank-of-england-commences-the-direct-delivery-of-the-chaps-service
- Bank of England, "CHAPS transitions to latest global financial messaging standard", 19 Jun 2023. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/2023/june/chaps-transitions-to-latest-global-financial-messaging-standard
- Bank of England, "Mandating ISO 20022 enhanced data in CHAPS", policy statement and consultation, 4 Sep 2024. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/paper/2024/policy-statement/mandating-iso-20022-enhanced-data-in-chaps
- Bank of England, "Delay to the November 2026 RTGS standards release", statement, 27 Aug 2026. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/2026/august/delay-to-the-november-2026-rtgs-standards-release
- Bank of England, "Proposal to extend RT2 and CHAPS settlement hours (phase 1)", consultation paper, 29 Jul 2025. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/paper/2025/cp/proposal-extend-rt2-chaps-settlement-hours-phase-1
- Bank of England, "Extending RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours – early morning extension", policy statement, 24 Feb 2026. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/paper/2026/ps/extending-rtgs-and-chaps-settlement-hours-early-morning-extension
- Bank of England, "RTGS and CHAPS fees" (updated August 2026), read 20 Oct 2026. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/payments/rtgs-chaps-fees
- Barclays, "CHAPS payments", read 20 Oct 2026. https://www.barclays.co.uk/help/payments/payment-information/chaps-payments/
- HSBC UK, "Current account interest rates and charges", read 20 Oct 2026. https://www.hsbc.co.uk/current-accounts/interest-rates-and-charges/
- HSBC UK, "Personal Banking Terms and Conditions and Charges, effective from 6 July 2026", 11 Jun 2026 (PDF creation date). https://www.hsbc.co.uk/content/dam/hsbc/gb/pdf/personal-banking-terms-conditions.pdf
- Lloyds Bank, "Pay by CHAPS", read 20 Oct 2026. https://www.lloydsbank.com/help-guidance/everyday-banking/payments-and-transfers/pay-by-chaps.html
- NatWest, "How can I make a CHAPS payment?", read 20 Oct 2026. https://www.natwest.com/support-centre/banking-from-home/make-payments/how-can-i-make-a-chaps-payment.html
- Nationwide Building Society, "Sending money to another account", read 20 Oct 2026. https://www.nationwide.co.uk/help/payments/send-money-to-another-account
- Santander UK, "CHAPS payments", read 20 Oct 2026. https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/support/ways-to-bank/chaps-payments
- Payment Systems Regulator, "PS24/5 CHAPS APP scams reimbursement requirement", 6 Sep 2024. https://psr.org.uk/publications/policy-statements/ps245-chaps-app-scams-reimbursement-requirement/
- Payment Systems Regulator, "APP fraud reimbursement protections", read 20 Oct 2026. https://www.psr.org.uk/information-for-consumers/app-fraud-reimbursement-protections/
- City of London Police and Action Fraud notice "Protect yourself from payment diversion fraud when buying a new property", as republished by Chalvington with Ripe Parish Council, 7 Oct 2025 (actionfraud.police.uk refused our fetch). https://www.chalvingtonwithripe-pc.gov.uk/community/chalvington-with-ripe-parish-council-19894/news/action-fraud-notice-protect-yourself-from-payment-diversion-fraud-when-buying-a-new-property-84208
- Bank of England, "A brief introduction to RTGS and CHAPS", 21 Dec 2021 (PDF creation date). https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/payments/rtgs-chaps-brief-intro.pdf
- Bank of England, "Policy Statement: Implementing ISO 20022 Enhanced data in CHAPS", December 2020 (updated March 2023), 22 Mar 2023 (PDF creation date). https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/payments/rtgs-renewal-programme/iso-20022/policy-statement-implementing-iso-20022-enhanced-data-in-chaps-january-2022.pdf
Researched 20 October 2026. Fees, cut-off times and bank offerings change; your bank's own pages are authoritative.