RTGS and CHAPS fees
1: RTGS and CHAPS tariff framework
We charge fees to recoup the costs of providing RTGS settlement and acting as the payment system operator for CHAPS. Our tariff framework is designed and implemented based on five principles:
- Proportionate
- Simple and efficient
- Stable and predictable
- Supports competition and access
- Supports the Bank’s mission and RTGS/CHAPS policy framework
We review costs, the cost allocations and fee levels annually. Fee payers will be informed in advance of any changes. Where we expect a material increase, we will seek to do so at least six months in advance.
We charge fees to CHAPS Direct Participants, CREST Settlement Banks and RTGS account holders who settle in one of the net settlement systems. We also charge administrative, onboarding and lifecycle fees where we have to undertake additional work for specific participants.
We aim to carry out a review of the RTGS/CHAPS tariff framework every three years in addition to ad-hoc reviews if there are any substantive changes to how RTGS/CHAPS used or the addition of new services. We do not envisage any material changes before 2028.
Additional detail can be found in Annex 1: Design of the tariff framework.
2: Collection of the RTGS and CHAPS fees
The tariff year runs from 1 January to 31 December. In 2025, this starts from 28 April given the delivery of the renewed RTGS system on 28 April 2025.
Annual fees
We will issue annual fee invoices in January.
For 2025, this will be issued in May given the transition to the renewed RTGS system on 28 April 2025.
Usage fees
We will issue an invoice for RTGS/CHAPS use up to 25 April 2025 in May 2025.This will be the final invoice based on the previous tariff framework.
For 2025 usage of the renewed RTGS system:
- The first 2025 invoice for usage fees will be issued in July 2025, covering 28 April 2025 to 30 June 2025
- The second 2025 invoice for usage fees will be issued in October, covering 1 July to 30 September 2025
- The third 2025 invoice for usage fees will be issued in early 2026, covering 1 October to 31 December 2025.
3: CHAPS tariff
The CHAPS tariff is made up of two parts, covering settlement in RTGS as well as our role as the payment system operator of CHAPS.
- An annual, fixed, CHAPS Participation Fee
- A usage fee for CHAPS payments.
Table 1: CHAPS fees for 2025 for CHAPS Direct Participants (DPs)
| CHAPS tariff – 28 April 2025 to 31 December 2025 |
|
|---|---|
| CHAPS participation fee |
Calculated as CHAPS DP’s percentage share of total values between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024 multiplied by 50% of total CHAPS values. |
| CHAPS usage |
42.7 pence per CHAPS payment sent |
Usage fees are calculated based on the CHAPS DP sending a payment. CHAPS DPs may also ask us to enable ‘Party To Party’ transfers – typically in a contingency scenario. These will be charged at the same rate as a CHAPS payment ie 42.7 pence. If a CHAPS DP uses PTPs more than twice a year, an additional fee of £550 fixed administration fee will be applied for the year.
For 2025, any rebates from fees paid before the move to the renewed RTGS system will be calculated later in 2025 and returned to CHAPS Direct Participants.
4: CREST tariff
The CREST tariff is made up of two parts
- An annual, fixed, CREST DvP settlement fee
- A per-item fee for CREST settlement in RTGS.
Euroclear UK & International, as the operator of CREST, is responsible for determining how RTGS fees for CREST are distributed across the CREST settlement banks. It shared its methodology with CREST settlement banks in 2025 – a summary is provided below.
The CREST fees for RTGS are made up for two parts of which 50% is based on volumes, and 50% is based on values.
- An annual DvP Participation Fee based on each CREST settlement bank’s share of the total gross values applied to 50% of the overall annual cost recovery target set by the Bank. A £50,000 de minimis is applied for any CREST settlement banks with a calculated DvP Participation Fee below the de minimis. The DvP Participation Fee will be an annual charge based on preceding data and debited from CREST settlement banks by the Bank at the start of each RTGS tariff year.
- A quarterly DvP Usage Fee based on the total volume of gross settlement debit transactions across all CREST settlement banks during the tariff data collection period, applied to 50% of the overall annual cost recovery target set by the Bank for CREST. The initial DvP Usage Fee has been set at 38 pence for each CREST settlement debit in RTGS. Euroclear UK & International based this on analysis of gross settlement volumes in recent years. The DvP Usage Fee will be a quarterly charge based on data from the previous three months, which Euroclear UK & International will provide to the Bank.
5: Net settlement tariff
We charge an annual fee for settlement participants in the systems that settle in RTGS on a net basis.
We have allocated each payment system operator to a specific tranche based on their gross values. Payment system operators are responsible for a proportion of RTGS fees based on their tranche. Each payment system operator is responsible for determining how RTGS fees are distributed across its settlement participants.
| Tranche | Gross annual values |
Pro-rated basic fee for 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greater than or equal to £50 trillion |
£15,700,000 |
| 2 | Greater than or equal to £10 trillion, less than £50 trillion |
Not currently applicable |
| 3 | Greater than or equal to £2 trillion, less than £10 trillion |
£1,300,000 |
| 4 | Greater than or equal to £400 billion, less than £2 trillion |
£370,000 |
| 5 | Less than £400 billion |
£110,000 |
CHAPS and CREST are subject to specific charges given the real-time nature of the settlement service provided.
The basic fee above will be increased where additional settlement services are provided for a net settlement payment system. These are:
- An extra 20% for prefunding
- An extra allocation for one more than one settlement a day
- 10% for two to five settlements per day
- 20% for six to ten settlements per day
- 30% for eleven to twenty settlements per day.
- If a payment system operator wishes to settle more than twenty times a day, the relevant fee will be considered at the time.
We will invoice settlement participants directly except where a separate arrangement has been agreed with the payment system operator. PEXA currently pays its allocation of RTGS settlement costs up front on behalf of its settlement participants and so there are currently no annual charges for individual settlement participants.
6: Additional fees
Manual contingency defund charge
Non-CHAPS account holders can use BERTI to instruct ‘defunds’ from their accounts held in RTGS to an account held with a commercial provider. In the event that a non-CHAPS account holder is unable to access BERTI to instruct such a defund, it can ask us to process a manual contingency defund on its’ behalf.
There is a fixed administrative fee of £550 per defund that we input on account holders’ behalf. This applied more than two manual contingency defunds are made within a calendar year. Charges will not be made for defunds of less than or equal to £1, including as part of any regular manual defund tests.
Onboarding fees
We set onboarding fees to reflect time and costs associated with supporting onboarding activity including policy, assurance, operational and legal activities. These fees apply to existing account holders – for example a reserves-only account holder starting to settle in a payment system – as well as new account holders.
| Activity |
Fee |
|---|---|
| Opening a settlement account in RTGS (or converting a reserves-only account to a reserves/settlement account) |
£30,000 |
| Settling in an additional payment system (excluding CHAPS) |
£20,000 |
| Joining CHAPS |
£90,000 |
| A new payment system settling in RTGS |
£100,000 |
For example, if a bank with a reserves-only account wants to convert a reserves-only account to a reserves/settlement account to support settlement in Faster Payments, this would incur a charge of £50,000.
Fees will be collected in two parts:
- 50% when an onboarding slot is allocated
- 50% after completion
For a particularly complex onboarding, we may exercise our discretion to increase the standard fee. We may also invoice directly for certain costs – including those from third parties.
Lifecycle event fees
A lifecycle event fee will be applied to recover the costs associated with any structural changes to settlement accounts (for example, an account merger or account novation). This reflects the time and cost we incur in managing these types of changes.
For a particularly complex change, we may exercise our discretion to increase the standard fee.
Offboarding fees
We will not ordinarily charge an offboarding or exit fee but reserve the right to do so. Depending on the circumstances, we may rebate a portion of the annual fees charged.
Annex 1: Design of the tariff framework
We said in our Blueprint for a new RTGS Service for the United Kingdom that recovery of costs for the RTGS Renewal Programme would not start before delivery of the first tranche of functionality.
In April 2022, we consulted on a set of proposals for a revised RTGS-CHAPS tariff framework. On 13 February 2023, we published the RTGS - CHAPS tariff consultation response paper which summarised our decisions, taking into consideration industry feedback, on the new structures we will use to recover the build and run costs of the renewed RTGS service.
Table: Tariff principles
| Principle 1: Proportionate |
The allocation and recovery of our costs, across payment systems that settle in RTGS and participants, needs to be proportionate no matter the metric used. |
|---|---|
| Principle 2: Simple and efficient |
The tariff should be reasonably easy to administer and understand; it should also be simple and transparent. |
| Principle 3: Stable and predictable |
The tariff needs to be sustainable and should be predictable for payment system operators and their settlement participants over the coming years. |
| Principle 4: Supports competition and access |
The tariff should support the RTGS vision of broader access/reduced cost of access, in order to encourage greater competition. |
| Principle 5: Supports the Bank’s mission and RTGS/CHAPS policy objectives |
The tariff should not be used as the primary means to incentivise particular behaviours by payment system operators or their settlement participants, though it could be used to guide the behaviours in line with our policy aims and objectives. |