The Bank of England opened a consultation on 19 May 2026 on extending CHAPS and RTGS settlement hours. The preferred approach adds Sunday settlement and certain UK bank holidays as the first phase, not before 2029. A second phase would lengthen settlement windows on existing days, not before 2031. The target end-state is either 22-hour days across six days or 23.5-hour days across seven.
The consultation follows a confirmed decision to extend the CHAPS opening time from 06:00 to 01:30 on weekdays from September 2027. That change will bring daily CHAPS availability to 16.5 hours. The BoE stated its preference for weekend expansion first, citing greater risk reduction benefits and potential to support innovation. Responses are due by 10 August 2026.
RT2, the Bank's renewed RTGS infrastructure, went live in April 2025. The system's architecture supports near-24x7 operation. The BoE's Synchronisation Lab selected 18 organisations to test synchronised settlement use cases against RT2 in a non-live environment.