How the Bank of England keeps the money moving in the UK | City Week 2025

City AM has partnered with City Week, and we've been given the opportunity to speak to analysts, economists and investors about how to power the sustainable energy transition. Managing editor Rupert Hargreaves spoke to the Bank of England's executive director of payments, Victoria Cleland, about the launch of the Bank’s renewed Real-Time Gross Settlement service. RTGS is the infrastructure at the heart of the UK’s financial system, enabling the real-time transfer of payments between financial institutions, settled in central bank money – the ultimate risk-free settlement asset. It plays a role in the smooth functioning of every single electronic payment in the UK, averaging a settlement of almost £800bn per day. Earlier this year, the Bank of England successfully launched its renewed RTGS core ledger and settlement engine, including a new user interface: improving resilience, enhancing functionality, and providing a strong platform for further change. Almost two months on from go-live, the new system has settled over £30 trillion of payments - that is enough to run the International Space Station for over 13,000 years! They discussed the Bank's innovations in payments infrastructure, the complex regulatory framework at play, and how payments must adapt as the "lifeblood of the economy". Get more of City AM 👇 🌐 http://www.cityam.com X(formerly Twitter): http://twitter.com/CityAM Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cityam Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/city_am LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/cityam