Payments:Unpacked
Payments:Unpacked Podcast
£747Billion Before Breakfast
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£747Billion Before Breakfast

The surprising truth about where Britain's money really moves—and why most of the payments we make barely register.

Every day, £747 billion moves through the UK’s payment systems—but almost all of it flows through just two invisible pieces of financial infrastructure.

In this episode, Mike Chambers unpacks the surprising reality behind the UK’s payments ecosystem. Discover why CHAPS and CREST account for 98.5% of all value settled, why the payment systems most of us use every day represent just 1.5% of the total, and why the way we visualise payments can completely change our understanding of the industry.

Featuring insights from Bank of England settlement data, this episode reveals the hidden scale of the UK’s financial plumbing—and explains why every payments statistic depends on which chart you’re looking at.

Based on the Payments:Unpacked article: “Where Britain’s Money Actually Moves.”


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