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The
BoE's Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) handles transactions
worth around 500 billion pounds ($659 billion) a day -
equivalent to almost a third of Britain's annual economic
output.
It suffered a major outage in October 2014, and in June BoE
Governor Mark Carney said he wanted to make it easier for
smaller firms to use the system directly rather than via large
incumbent banks.
On Friday the BoE set out more detailed proposals and said it
planned to fund the changes by temporarily increasing the
charges banks pay to use the system.
"The world of payments is changing rapidly, and central banks
need to keep pace if we are to deliver our mission of monetary
and financial stability ... whilst also enabling innovation and
competition where we can," BoE executive director Andrew Hauser
said.
Proposed enhancements include running the system continuously,
rather than just during normal working hours, and making it
easier for smaller banks, brokers and payment processing firms
to access the system directly.
"A key enabler for delivering these changes will be a
comprehensive rebuild of the RTGS technology platform. The Bank
will make decisions on its resilience, including in particular
its cyber defenses, in consultation with intelligence partners,"
the BoE said.
Other goals included allowing forward-dated payments and
creating an interface with the 'distributed-ledger' technology
that underpins digital currencies such as Bitcoin "if/when they
achieve critical mass", it said.
(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Costas Pitas and Hugh
Lawson)
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