• access: that all banks and building societies which presently use BACS should have access, if they so wish.  If, exceptionally, they do not wish to have access, there would be no obligation to offer the new services
• coverage: if a bank or building society has decided to offer the new service, its coverage of the scheme should be such that it is available on all those accounts on which it currently offers BACS clearing
• payment channels at a generic level (that is, in relation to telephone and Internet payments): for each such account, the new service must be available via existing channels for the account which can be used to make BACS credits
• standing orders: for banks and building societies participating in the new service, standing orders will be routed through a faster payments service, or, if it proves impracticable to include regular payments in the faster payments solution, the industry will, within the same time frame, eliminate 'float' from standing orders (the interest accruing to banks when the money has left the payee's account but hasn't yet reached the recipient's), will address information issues, and will seek to resolve timing issues relating to availability of funds for customers. (The payer needs to have money in his or her account two working days before funds are paid to the beneficiary. If funds are not available at that time the standing order might be rejected, or any resulting overdraft might be subject to a charge.)
• continuity of service: if a bank or building society does not elect to join the new service, the industry will ensure that transfers via telephone, Internet or standing order will still be able to reach accounts at those institutions, as a minimum, on the same basis as currently
• other functionality: whether there is scope for payments to be revoked and recalled
• capacity: that the scheme should have the capacity for further expansion at any stage in the future, if required.

4. A payment initiated by telephone or Internet leaves the final customer account at the paying clearing bank before settlement occurs, and the paying bank, rather than the final customer, earns interest ('float') on the money for the period before settlement.  Introduction of the new service will eliminate this 'float' interest.

5. The principal aims of the Working Group were:

to identify the scope for, and costs and benefits of, innovation to current clearing arrangements for high volume, low value electronic payments (inter-bank telephone and Internet banking payments, and standing orders where, in most cases, value transfer does not take place on the same day; transfers within the same bank group usually take place on the same day already)

• to identify, and set out for the Task Force the drivers and options for change to current arrangements; and
• for the Task Force then to decide its recommendations in the light of those options.

6. Competition concerns about United Kingdom payment schemes were raised in the Cruickshank report of 2000. It found economic characteristics of United Kingdom payment schemes that did not appear to deliver price transparency, good governance, non-discriminatory access, efficient wholesale pricing or innovation. The report suggested that a new framework for competition, including licensing and regulation, was necessary to deal with the problems identified.