A web site has been set up to let people check whether a bank is set up to receive faster payments, utilising the receiving account’s sort code. The web site www.canipayfaster.co.uk will facilitate a banking scheme that allows one-day cash transfers on the Web and over the telephone.

The scheme is expected to hasten up the process that previously took up to four days for money transfer between the various UK banks. The £300m Faster Payments Service, initiated by 13 banks, begins on 27 May. To start with, just a fraction of payments will be received ‘faster’.

The scheme will quicken up the process that previously saw money transferred between banks taking up to four days. Banks had estimated £30m in interest from the delays in transfers last year. Around 347 million standing order payments were made last year. The same are expected to go up to 422 million in a decade. The banking industry states that it does not want to choke the new system from day one. Hence, various banks will implement it in a phased manner.