The Bank of England’s consultation on extending RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours closed yesterday. While the final roadmap is still being decided, one change is confirmed: from September 2027, CHAPS will open at 01:30 rather than 06:00, Monday to Friday.
Beyond that, the Bank is considering a phased move towards near 24×7 settlement. Its preferred sequence is to introduce settlement on Sundays and selected bank holiday no earlier than 2029, followed by longer daily operating windows no earlier than 2031. Longer term, the end state could be either 22×7 or 23.5×7.
There is still plenty to resolve. But for banks, the direction is clear. The settlement day is getting longer, the gap between processing windows is shrinking, and operating models will need to become more continuous.
September 2027 is the practical starting point
The earlier opening isn’t simply a timetable change. It’s the first real test of whether payment operations can support longer settlement without creating new friction.
Extended hours should bring genuine benefits. More overlap with overseas RTGS systems could make cross-border payments faster and more predictable. More frequent settlement could improve liquidity efficiency. It also creates the foundation for new models involving tokenised assets, synchronisation and stablecoins, where activity doesn’t stop at the end of the traditional banking day.
But those benefits depend on uninterrupted transaction processing. A longer settlement window only works if messages, checks, routing, reconciliation and exception handling can continue reliably across it.
Many banks already understand where their infrastructure constraints sit. The challenge now is assessing how those constraints behave when there is less downtime available to absorb them.
Less downtime changes the operational equation
Legacy systems are not necessarily the problem in isolation. Many remain reliable and business-critical. The difficulty comes when payments depend on multiple siloed systems, batch processes and manual hand-offs designed around a fixed end-of-day window.
Opening CHAPS four and a half hours earlier means overnight processing, reconciliations, data feeds and maintenance schedules may overlap with live settlement. Banks will need to understand which processes can run simultaneously, which need to be redesigned and where a delay in one system could cause a domino effect down the wider payment chain.
This becomes more important as settlement moves towards weekends and near-continuous availability. The Bank of England highlights change management as a key consideration as less scheduled downtime means less wiggle room for upgrades, testing and incident-driven fixes. Banks will need release processes that support smaller, controlled changes without disrupting settlement.
Operational risk also becomes more visible. With less time to investigate problems between settlement days, teams need to identify exceptions quickly, understand where they originated and act before they spread. That requires live, joined-up reporting that shows the full transaction journey, rather than separate dashboards or end-of-day reports.
Stablecoin and tokenised settlement raise the same issue. Connecting new forms of money to existing infrastructure requires more than another interface. Banks need orchestration across messaging, compliance, liquidity and settlement, with consistent controls and a clear audit trail.
Modernise around the core
Preparing for September 2027 doesn’t require banks to replace every critical system. A more practical approach is to introduce a modern messaging and orchestration layer that connects existing infrastructure and supports gradual change.
Aqua Global’s Aquila platform sits alongside core banking, payment, screening and reconciliation systems. It validates, enriches and routes messages through configurable workflows, while providing real-time monitoring, structured exception handling and end-to-end auditability.
This gives banks a way to automate more of the payment lifecycle without adding another silo or forcing a disruptive rip-and-replace programme. It also creates a foundation that can adapt as the Bank of England confirms its longer-term roadmap.
The consultation may close yesterday, but preparation should not wait for every detail to be finalised. Banks that use the period before September 2027 to map dependencies, test extended operating windows and strengthen orchestration and reporting will be better placed for the first extension – and for each stage that follows.
