CHAPS
What is CHAPS?
CHAPS is the UK's real-time gross settlement system for high-value sterling payments, from one bank account to another on the same working day with no scheme value cap. It's the payment rail businesses and banks reach for when a transfer must clear same-day and the amount is too large, or too important, for Bacs or Faster Payments.
Short for the Clearing House Automated Payment System, CHAPS launched in 1984 and has been operated by the Bank of England since November 2017, after responsibility moved from the CHAPS Clearing Company. Twenty direct participants, including major UK and international banks, connect straight to the system, while thousands of indirect participants access it through agency arrangements with a direct participant. CHAPS is the standard method for property completions, large supplier and treasury payments, and other transfers where irreversible, same-day settlement matters more than cost.
Key facts
- Also known as: Clearing House Automated Payment System
- Operated by: Bank of England (since November 2017); previously the CHAPS Clearing Company
- Launched: 1984
- Settlement type: real-time gross settlement – each payment settles individually and immediately, rather than in batches or net settlement like Bacs
- Value cap: none; the typical use case is high-value transfers such as property purchases and corporate treasury payments
- Scale: 52.7 million CHAPS payments were made in 2024, worth £87.5 trillion – about 0.1% of UK payment volume but 88% of total payment value (UK Finance, 2025)
- Cost: relatively expensive compared with Bacs or Faster Payments; banks have historically charged as much as £35 per transfer
How it works
- Sender initiates the payment – a bank, or more often a customer instructing their bank (directly, or through a solicitor or conveyancer for a property purchase), specifying the amount and the recipient's details.
- Sending bank submits it for settlement – the payment is checked and forwarded to the Bank of England's settlement system, either directly by a CHAPS direct participant or via an indirect participant's agency arrangement.
- Funds settle individually and immediately – unlike batch-cleared payments, each CHAPS payment settles on its own, with the sending bank's account at the Bank of England debited and the receiving bank's account credited straight away.
- Receiving bank credits the recipient – funds are available in the recipient's account the same working day, and the transfer generally can't be recalled or reversed once it's settled.
Why it matters
- Same-day, guaranteed settlement makes CHAPS the standard choice for time-critical, high-value payments such as property completions, where a delay can break a contractual deadline.
- Because CHAPS has no scheme value cap, it's the only UK domestic rail that can move very large sums in a single payment, rather than splitting them across smaller Bacs or Faster Payments transactions.
- Settlement finality removes the risk of a payment being recalled or bounced after it appears to have arrived, which is why solicitors and treasury teams rely on it for transfers that can't be undone.
How it compares
| Method | Typical speed | Common use |
| CHAPS | Same business day | High-value transfers, such as property purchases and corporate treasury payments |
| 3 business days | Payroll, pensions, supplier payments, direct debit collections | |
| Seconds | One-off transfers, payouts, refunds |
CHAPS settles individually in real time, which puts it in the same broad category as other systems, though its wholesale, high-value focus sets it apart from person-to-person real-time rails.
