HP Integrity NonStop cuts payment processing times from days down to seconds

VocaLink's new Faster Payments service has been described as the biggest change to the UK banking system for over 40 years.

The company—formed by the merger of Voca, Europe’s largest direct debit and direct credit processor, and LINK, which runs the world’s busiest automated teller machine (ATM) switch—was engaged by APACS, the UK’s trade body for payments, to develop a new low-cost fast payment service for the UK financial services industry. The result is the groundbreaking Faster Payments service—running on the HP Integrity NonStop servers—that has exceeded forecasts by 158 percent.

The need for a faster, low-cost, UK payment service was underlined by the Cruickshank Report, published in 2000 following a banking review ordered by the UK Treasury. This led the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to call for an alternative to existing systems, which could take up to three days to clear payments.

“The new Faster Payments service is a new and exciting contribution to the UK economy so it has to be constantly available. We chose Integrity NonStop technology to deliver that hard requirement because it has proven to be the best platform for highly critical financial services.”
—Imran Ali, Faster Payments Director, VocaLink

The development of real-time payments processing with Integrity NonStop technology was an important stepping stone in the evolution of VocaLink’s business. Having this stable technology platform gives VocaLink the firm foundation it needs to push the boundaries of payment processing even further, accelerating business outcomes with speedier service rollout and increasing customer satisfaction. The reliability of Integrity NonStop technology also supports VocaLink in meeting its stringent Service Level Agreements (SLA). In the first five weeks of operation, Faster Payments service processed over five million payments.

Find out more
Read more about VocaLink and check the Integrity NonStop Customer References page for other customer references.

This news is published on NonStop Computing websites. October 2008.