Bank of England hit with 'global payments issue' delaying house payments

A Bank of England spokesperson said: "A global payments issue is affecting the Bank's CHAPS service and delaying some high value and time-sensitive payments, including some house purchases.

"We are mindful of the impact this is likely to have and are working closely with a third party supplier, industry and other authorities to resolve the issue as promptly as possible.

"If you are concerned about a CHAPS payment you plan to make or receive today, please contact your bank, or other payment service provider.

"Retail payment systems are unaffected so people and businesses can continue to use cash points, card payments and bank transfers as normal."

Britons have been reassured the problem is not affecting ordinary debit and credit payments, cash points or bank transfers.

The Bank has said the payment issue had been triggered by a global error at Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

The global payments issue has not been caused by a hack.

CHAPS is one of the largest high-value payment systems in the world, providing efficient, settlement risk-free and irrevocable payments.

There are over 35 direct participants and several thousand financial institutions that make CHAPS payments through one of the direct participants.

There are 200,000 payments via CHAPs every day in the UK, at a value of £363billion, with financial institutions using the system to transfer money between them, accounting for the majority of payments.

However, individuals may be affected as it is used for high-value transfers such as house completions and the purchase of cars.

Toby Leek, NAEA Propertymark President said: "Completing on a property can be extremely stressful even without technical issues, however it is important to remember that should systems ever cause unexpected problems at a vital moment within the transactional process these issues do tend to be fixed quickly.

"The flipside is in the short term, this can have the potential to leave people waiting outside their new property with a removal van full of their belongings in very extreme cases.”

It has not been confirmed how many transactions had been affected so far and when the issue would be resolved.

The Bank is understood to be working to mitigate the disruption.