Faster Payments has reported its busiest period thus far, following an end of tax year rush to move money and pay bills. In a six hour period, from midnight on Tuesday 2 April, 9.1 million standing orders were processed by the scheme. The new peak is nearly 20 per cent higher than the 7.7 million sent on the same day in 2012 and seven times more than the typical daily average of 1.3 million.

The large number of standing orders processed on 2 April resulted from the two Easter bank holidays falling at the end of the month, which tends to be a common time for bills. The date also fell just in advance of the new tax year and coincided with the end of the quarter and financial year. A further 5.3 million online and phone banking payments were sent after the banks closed on Thursday 28 March and before they reopened on Tuesday 2 April, bringing the total number of bank holiday Faster Payments to 14.4 million.

Over 2.3 billion payments worth more than £1.3 trillion have been processed since Faster Payments launched in May 2008 and nearly one billion are expected to be sent in 2013. Craig Tillotson, managing director of the Faster Payments Scheme, says: “Processing nearly 10 million payments seamlessly in one night is testament to the work done by banks, building societies, our technology providers and the Scheme itself to keep the country’s money moving - even when most of us are asleep in our beds. This growth in Faster Payments confirms we are becoming the preferred choice for moving money any time, simply, quickly and reliably.”

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