The essential numbers guide to the UK's payment rails

Issue 547 | 20 November 2023

In this tenth round up of retail payments in 2023, for the 12 months to the end of September 2023, we continue to see double digit growth in the volume and value of Faster Payments and double digit decline in paper clearing.

With annual volumes of cheques processed being close to the single largest Bacs processing day the decline in paper based transactions continues.

The agreed measure for the eventual end of the cheque was ‘for as long as they are required’ – at just over 116Million cheques per annum the inevitable decision must be drawing closer.

The growth in volume and value for the UK’s bulk clearing scheme remain at 2% and 7% respectively with growth in the volume and value for the UK’s real time gross settlement system now at 2% and 3% respectively.

Note: All data is publicly sourced and is the latest available: Pay.UK September 2023.

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Source: Pay.UK

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Cheques

In the 12 months to the end of September 2023 we see that:

• Cheque volumes have decreased by 16% (12 months to August decreased by 16%)

• Cheque values have decreased by 9% (12 months to August decreased by 9%)

Whilst Faster Payments is experiencing double digit value growth the paper cheque continues to suffer double digit decline – the volume of cheques processed has now decreased by 16% over the last 12 months.

Cheque volumes total just 1% of the total volumes processed by Pay.UK’s schemes (Bacs and Faster Payments) and continued decline in this share is expected as actual volumes decrease and growth continues elsewhere, particularly with Faster Payments.

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Faster Payments

In the 12 months to the end of September 2023 we see that:

• Single Immediate Payment volumes have increased by 19% (12 months to August 19%)