APACS to start from scratch on same day payments system
February 26, 2008
The payment clearance agency APACS has announced recently that it will have to start from scratch with regards to its same day payment clearance system, which was due to be launched by the end of this year. In an earlier announcement the payment clearance agency had stated that a new, improved system was to be launched ready for the end of the year, and that this system would enable phone and Internet transactions to go through far more quickly.
The new system was to enable phone and Internet payments to go through either the same day or the next day depending on what time the transaction was made. At present it can take several days for phone or Internet transactions to go through. APACS has now stated that this deadline cannot be met, as the agency has had to rethink the system and has therefore had to start from scratch. The agency added that this is because it wants to develop a system that will allow all Internet and pone transactions to go through same day.
APACS stated that the launch of the new system is likely to be next year, and with this system, although payments made via Internet and phone will still not be instantaneous, they will all go through on the same day. With the increase in the number of people making phone and Internet transactions it was thought that an improved systems such as this was necessary in the UK.
One APACS official stated: ‘We are starting from scratch. We always said the deadline was tight and it has proved to be tighter than we expected.’ She added: ‘Increasingly, people press a button and expect what is happening to be immediate. At the moment it isn’t. The new system is to make it more reflective of what people think they have already got.’
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