Bank of England and Accenture Modernize UK RTGS
The Bank of England, working with the consulting firm Accenture, has finished a major update to the UK’s payments infrastructure. This multi-year project, called the Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) renewal programme, first launched in 2020. Its goal was to create a modern, secure, and scalable system for large-scale wholesale payments. This new system is designed to support the UK’s evolving financial landscape.
A New, Resilient Core Ledger
Accenture developed a new core ledger and settlement engine for the system. This technology is built on a modern, cloud-native architecture and uses end-to-end automation. The updated infrastructure is better at working with other systems, speeds up settlement times, and offers much stronger protection against outages. Key features include the ability to recover with zero data loss and automatic failover functions. This means if one system fails, operations can quickly and seamlessly switch to a backup.
Strong Performance Since Launch
The renewed RTGS platform went live on April 28, 2025. Since then, it has already processed a huge volume of transactions. The system has handled over 9.4 million payments, with a total value of £35.2 trillion. On its busiest day so far, it cleared 295,000 transactions without any problems. The new system also has better onboarding features and external APIs. These improvements make it easier for more financial participants to join, which helps broaden inclusion across the industry.
A “Bedrock for Resilience”
According to Shaheen Sayed, the head of Accenture in the UK, Ireland, and Africa, the upgraded RTGS system will act as a “bedrock for resilience.” She stated it provides the financial sector with modern infrastructure that supports both stability and new ideas. Now positioned at the very heart of the UK payments ecosystem, the new platform does two key things. It secures the flow of vital transactions, and it gives institutions a strong, trusted foundation on which to build new services.
With the completion of the RTGS renewal, the UK has taken a critical step forward. It has modernized its core financial market infrastructure. This ensures the country’s payment backbone can meet the demands of a digital-first economy while maintaining the highest levels of trust and security.
