The Bank of England has published the outcomes from a "Proof of Concept" it ran to understand how its renewed Real-Time Gross Settlement service could be capable of supporting settlement in systems operating on innovative payment technologies, such as those built on Distributed Ledger Technology. The BoE has operated the RTGS service since 1996 to provide a safe and reliable means of settling high-value cash payments in real time in sterling central bank money. The BoE published a blueprint for renewal of the RTGS in May 2017, setting out how it proposed to overhaul the system to ensure higher resilience, broader access, wider interoperability, improved user functionality and strengthened end-to-end risk management of the high-value payment system.

For the POC, the BoE partnered with a range of firms developing payment arrangements using innovative technologies. All participants in the POC confirmed that the functionality offered by the renewed RTGS service would enable their systems to connect and to achieve settlement in central bank money. The outcomes of the POC will inform the BoE's ongoing work on RTGS renewal. In particular, the BoE proposes to: (i) consider how different account structures could be used in the renewed RTGS service; (ii) investigate whether the renewed RTGS service could provide and consume acceptable forms of cryptographic proofs; and (iii) continue to engage with FinTech firms to keep up to date with innovation in payment technology.

View the POC outcomes document.

View the BoE's RTGS renewal webpage.