History of CHAPS

Notable Dates

  • CHAPS came into operation on 9 February 1984. Initially, CHAPS was limited to payments of £10,000 and above but this minimum threshold was progressively reduced (to £7,000 in July 1988, to £5,000 in February 1990, to £1,000 in January 1992 and finally done away with completely).
  • To reduce settlement risk, net sender limits were formally introduced on 12 September 1994.
  • Implementation of CHAPSNet on March 1996 to provide a bespoke communication network for CHAPS payments.
  • Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) went live on 22 April 1996 and eliminated settlement risk.
  • CHAPS Euro went live on 4 January 1999 and provided a high-value clearing for euro-denominated payments running over SWIFT.
  • New CHAPS Sterling went live on 28 August 2001 moving from its bespoke communications network to a SWIFT network.
  • CHAPS Euro closed on 16 May 2008 just prior to TARGET2 going live.
  • One quadrillion pounds processed through CHAPS following a payment of £500 million made on 25 July 2011.