The Bank of England and Accenture have renewed their partnership to continue modernising the Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) programme, a specialised payment infrastructure used by central banks to facilitate instantaneous, high-value fund transfers between financial institutions.

This renewal follows a multi-year transformation programme launched in 2020, focused on enhancing the resilience, accessibility and functionality of RTGS, with the aim of providing a robust infrastructure for wholesale payments in the UK.

RTGS is central to the UK’s financial system, supporting an average of £800 billion in transactions every working day. The partnership has centred on rebuilding the digital core of the RTGS service, which securely and instantly settles payments between financial institutions and underpins monetary policy implementation and financial stability.

As part of the programme, Accenture delivered a new general ledger and settlement engine based on a cloud-native architecture, supported by end-to-end automation to increase speed and scalability. The enhanced automation now runs more than 40,000 tests per day, according to Accenture.

The modernised system offers faster onboarding capabilities and external APIs for easier data access, enabling it to accommodate a wider range of participants – including non-bank payment service providers and distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms – and fostering a more diverse financial ecosystem.

The platform also incorporates advanced data recovery and failover features, allowing for rapid transfer of critical operations to a temporary backup system in the event of disruption.

The revamped RTGS platform, known as RT2, went live on 28 April 2025, processing over 9.4 million transactions worth £35.2 trillion in its first three months. This launch marks a significant milestone in the Bank’s RTGS Renewal Programme, which also included the migration to ISO 20022 messaging for CHAPS payments in 2023, delivering greater interoperability and user functionality.

Commenting on the service, Shaheen Sayed, head of Accenture in the UK, Ireland and Africa, said it provides “a solid foundation for resilience”, giving financial institutions access to a more secure engine.

“The RTGS is at the heart of the UK payments system, and the solution enables the seamless flow of value throughout the economy, empowering the industry to innovate,” she added.

Looking ahead, the Bank of England is prioritising further enhancements to RTGS, including extended operating hours, synchronised settlement with other ledgers, and continued improvements to resilience and innovation. The ongoing collaboration with Accenture and industry stakeholders aims to ensure RTGS remains fit for purpose in a rapidly evolving payments landscape.

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