On 29 July 2025, the Bank of England (BoE) issued a consultation paper ‘Proposal to extend RT2 and CHAPS settlement hours (phase 1)’.

Background

The renewed Real Time Gross Settlement service, RT2, went live on 28 April 2025.

The introduction of RT2 provides a strong, open platform for innovation and growth, and the BoE is now looking to leverage these foundations to help improve payments. This includes reviewing the settlement hours for RT2 and CHAPS.

Following the BoE’s 2022 consultation and 2023 response regarding the future roadmap, and further industry engagement, the BoE determined that the current 6am to 6pm window for settlement is not sufficient to meet the future needs of industry and end users. The world is increasingly moving towards 24×7 operations and RT2, as the core financial infrastructure in the UK, needs to respond.

The BoE published a discussion paper in February 2024 outlining its initial analysis of the benefits and costs of extended hours. The BoE’s response in October 2024 outlined its preliminary vision.

Consultation

In this consultation paper on phase 1 of extended settlement hours, the BoE outlines in greater detail how it proposes to open CHAPS for settlement from 1.30am.

The BoE is aiming for implementation of this early morning extension in the second half of 2027 (subject to consultation feedback and further work internally) as it considers this a stepping stone towards its ongoing vision of near 24×7 settlement around the turn of the decade. The BoE is seeking input from industry to help it refine these proposals.

The BoE is also seeking early views to enable it to assess the benefits and use cases of potential changes to:

  • Expand the CHAPS contingency window (from its current hours of 6pm to 8pm, to 6pm to 10pm).
  • Offer settlement in RT2 at points during certain bank holiday weekends.

Next steps

The deadline for comments on the consultation paper is 21 October 2025.

The BoE plans to publish in:

2026: a policy statement covering the evening contingency extension and bank holiday settlement.

Early 2026: a policy statement on opening CHAPS for settlement from 1:30am.

Early 2026: a phase 2 consultation paper, consulting on the evening contingency extension and bank holiday settlement and seeking views on end-state settlement hours.