Project Overview
A UK FCA-authorised Payment Institution (PI) providing B2B payment services needed to build direct Faster Paym...
Technology Stack
Compliance & Standards
The Challenge
A UK FCA-authorised Payment Institution (PI) providing B2B payment services needed to build direct Faster Payments Service (FPS) connectivity — replacing their expensive third-party sponsor bank arrangement. Pay.UK FPS scheme membership, CHAPS (for high-value payments), FCA Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) technical standards, strong customer authentication (SCA), and operational resilience (FCA PS21/3) were the requirements. Budget: £180,000.
Our Approach
UK FPS Scheme Membership
Pay.
UK Faster Payments
- technical connectivity via New Payments Architecture (NPA) gateway or direct connection.
- ISO 20022 message format (pacs.008 for credit transfers, pacs.002 for payment status reports).
- Connection via VocaLink/Pay.UK gateway API.
Settlement
net settlement via Bank of England RTGS account.
Scheme Rules
FPS minimum service levels — 99.95% availability, 2-second response time for 90% of messages.
PSD2 SCA for payment initiation
multi-factor authentication (two of: knowledge, possession, inherence).
SCA exemptions
low-value payments (under £30), trusted beneficiaries (whitelisted payees), transaction risk analysis (TRA — statistical fraud scoring).
SCA implementation
TOTP (time-based one-time password) for web, push notification for mobile.
SCA logging
FCA expects SCA exemption decisions to be logged and auditable.
PS21/3 Important Business Services
payment processing is a critical IBS.
Impact Tolerance
payments available within 2 hours of disruption (FCA PS21/3 requirement for PIs).
DR architecture
active-passive with automated failover,
RTO target
2 hours.
Backup connectivity
secondary FPS connection (different network path).
Scenario testing
- simulated FPS connectivity loss — measured actual failover time and confirmed within tolerance.
- CHAPS High-
CHAPS
- Bank of England payment system for high-value, same-day sterling payments (no limit).
- ISO 20022 (pacs.008).
- Direct CHAPS member or indirect participant (via sponsoring bank).
FCA and Bank of England oversight
- CHAPS PSR (Payment Systems Regulator) compliance.
- ClickMasters built CHAPS connectivity as a secondary payment rail — FPS for sub-£1M payments, CHAPS for high-value.
The Results
Infrastructure live at 22 weeks, £168,000 — under budget.
FPS scheme membership achieved at launch.
Payment throughput: 18,400 payments processed in first month.
FPS availability: 99.97% (above 99.95% scheme minimum).
SCA exemption accuracy (TRA model): 94% of eligible payments correctly identified for low-friction checkout.
PS21/3 scenario test: failover achieved in 94 minutes (within 2-hour tolerance).
Sponsor bank fees eliminated: £340,000 annual saving.
“£340,000 annual saving on sponsor bank fees. That is the commercial case. The PS21/3 scenario test showed 94 minutes to failover — we had budgeted for 6 hours. The FCA found our SCA implementation particularly well-documented during the technical review." — CTO, UK Payment Institution (name withheld)”
Project Details
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