This part of the site is no longer accurate as regards dates. At the time of the last update (April 2008) the member banks should have finished their Faster Payments Programmes. This page has been left here for use by programme managers in those banks considering joining the scheme after Faster Payments starts in May 2008. Such banks would need a programme like the one described below but the actual dates would depend on when the bank wanted to join the scheme.
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Why would this site help me as a Faster Payments Programme Manager?
For a major UK clearing bank Faster Payments will be one of the biggest projects in recent years; up there with Y2K and Basel. Change will be made in up to 100 different bank systems.
A non Clearing Bank (eg a building society or a credit card company) will have most of this work to do, but the scale will be smaller and most are at least a year behind the schedule for a Clearing Bank.
The FAQ's below identify some of the main areas of work and skill associated with clearing bank's faster payments programme. If we have identified work or activity not in your plans contact us to find out why.
Every bank is different so this is hard to answer but the programme will have two very different profiles; one for those banks that started on time, and a different profile for those later starters that joined the Fast Payments programme in 2007, 2008 or 2009.
First part:
Unfortunately most banks started their Fast Payments programme late so much of the work has to happen in 2007.
The key features of the 2006 profile is mainly about the early part of the programme lifecycle.
Programme mobilisation/staffing
Business propositions and operating model definition
IT requirements definition
Software build and unit test.
Hence the skills requirements are mostly project managers and business analysts in the areas highlighted.
Some other aspects worth noting are:
This is an industry wide programme so communication with the APACS committees and central infrastructure supplier is important.
Some banks may have mortgage and credit card divisions which may well be the recipients of Faster Payments. This may cause them changes to their systems and processes.
A possible second part might look quite different as shown below:
Again, because so many banks are behind, a version of this will be carried out in 2007 but will be limited in scope. Further work will be implemented in 2008.
The staff in the branches, back office areas, call centres and relationship management teams will need training and communications to be able to deal with customer queries and new processes (e.g. overdrafts).
The customers will need an explanation of the changes. The large corporate customers and Agency Banks will need to make changes to their own systems which will require coordinating and testing with the banks and the Central Infrastructure. This will probably take place in 2008 but planning will be 2007.
A key feature of 2007 will be Testing; a pre-requisite to a high availability real time payment system. This will involve major test resources. These tests will be very extensive because of the number of internal systems impacted. Furthermore there will be extensive testing carried out with the Central Payments Infrastructure and other member banks.
A possible 2008 profile might look like the diagram below.
What is the range of skills that a bank will need to implement Faster Payments?
The faster payments programme in a Bank will be a multi divisional programme (like Y2K and BASEL) and so will require big programme management skills and programme offices.
In terms of technical skills there really is a wide variety of areas needed in both technical and business terms; key areas include
What level of Resources will be needed and where will this come from?
The Faster Payments programme will be of the same order of size as BASEL and Y2K; unfortunately it will be harder than these two projects;
Like Y2K, FP means lots of the changes are in banking mission critical system like payments, customer accounting and credit systems. Unlike Y2K, the changes are functional and so can't be automated as Y2K was.
Like BASEL, FP means a lot of functional changes across a number of different divisions. Unlike BASEL 2, the changes are intrusive into existing systems and are not a MI layer put on top of the operational systems.
Because of the nature of the FP-changes the bulk of knowledge and resources will have to come from the areas that know about the existing systems. If a bank insources its payments, credit and core accounting systems then it will have to provide the bulk of the resources. Conversely, if these systems are outsourced, the outsourcer will have to provide the bulk of the resources.
Because of this dependency on knowledge of existing systems large firms of consultants/IT services companies will not be of much use for a mass outsourcing of a bank's FP project. Banks will want to supplement their own skills but it will have to be on a much more piecemeal/niche basis. For example, skills based around particular software products that are installed in banks and are to be modified such as Connex, ACI, BACSTEL-IP will be needed from wherever they can be sourced.
What is the Overall Timetable and what should banks be doing now?
There is not an official timetable at this time (September 2007) other than the published go live date of May 2008. However, a plausible timeline for a major new inter-bank payment system with this implementation date might reasonably look like the chart below.
On this basis, member banks ought to be deep into testing and developing stiff customer communications material at this time and/or planning their 2008 implementation.
For a major UK clearing bank Faster Payments will be one of the biggest projects in recent years; up there with Y2K and Basel. Change will be made in up to 100 different bank systems.
