The Bank of England[1] is planning to rebuild its Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system so that it can interface with private business and platforms using distributed ledger technology[2] (DLT), the bank’s Governor Mark Carney announced in a speech[3] June 21.
Speaking at Mansion House in London, Carney said that the bank will conduct an “ambitious rebuild” of its RTGS system, which is, according to him, the backbone of every payment in the U.K. RTGS is a system generally used to transfer large volumes of funds between banks.
The bank is looking to reorganize the existing RTGS so that private payment platforms could plug in directly to the bank’s system. “Our new, hard infrastructure will be future-proofed to your imaginations, opening up a range of potential innovations in wholesale markets, and corporate banking and retail services,” Carney said.
The Governor also mentioned that the bank has begun working together with the Bank of Canada[4], the Monetary Authority of Singapore[5], and some private-sector organizations to upgrade inter-bank cross-border payments, including initiatives based on DLT. He said:
“The potential returns are large. At present, cross-border payments can cost ten times more than domestic ones. We estimate that in the U.K. alone there is scope to realize annual savings of over £600 million. Most fundamentally, the more seamless are global and domestic payments, the more U.K. households and businesses will benefit from the new global economy.”
Carney asserted that the new system will help fight money laundering and financing of terrorism, as well as advance access to the domestic and international financial systems.
The RTGS renewal Proof-of-Concept[6] (PoC) was initially proposed[7] in May 2017. The bank[8] then
