CHAPS Euro system to close after nine years of service

APACS, the UK payments association, announces the closure of the CHAPS Euro clearing service, which will take effect at the close of business tomorrow (16 May).

The system began operation in January 1999 and used the same settlement mechanisms as its sister service, CHAPS Sterling, to provide a same-day domestic euro service as part of TARGET (the network of inter-linked national euro systems).

The decision to decommission the CHAPS Euro service was taken after reassessing the UK's stance on the Euro, together with looking at the current transaction volumes and other options, now available, for making euro payments. When CHAPS Euro was created in 1999, the UK was still contemplating joining the Euro. However, over time the UK's stance has become clearer, making the case for continuing to participate in the clearing system considerably weaker.

A carefully managed migration commenced in November 2007, and the decline in CHAPS Euro payment volumes and values can be seen in APACS' quarterly statistical release (issued 15 May).

To celebrate nine years of uninterrupted and excellent service, APACS has released some facts and figures detailing the values and volumes of CHAPS Euro payments that have been made to-date.

Since 1999, there have been 50 million CHAPS Euro payments, totalling almost £338,000 billion. That is nearly fifty times the EU's 2007 GDP or nearly five hundred times Germany's 2007 exports.

As a point of comparison, since 1999 there have been 245 million CHAPS Sterling payments, totalling just under £484,000 billion. That is sixty-five times the EU's 2007 GDP, and equivalent to the price of 554 NASA space shuttles.

In 2007 alone there were 8 million CHAPS Euro payments, totalling just over £57,000 billion. That is almost 2000 times Bill Gates' financial worth, or 400,000 of the world's most expensive yachts.

The world's most expensive house was bought by Indian billionaire, Mukesh Ambani, for £514 million. The average daily value of CHAPS Euro payments is just under £225 billion, and would buy 438 of Mr Ambani's houses.

David MacFarlane, CHAPS Company Manager, says: "Whilst in operation, the CHAPS Euro service provided the UK with an efficient, safe and reliable method for making euro payments. The statistics above simply demonstrate the incredibly high values of payments that were processed, and let the system's successful operation speak for itself. The service upheld the UK's high standards of reliability, security and integrity that have come to be expected from a payment system.

"However, as time has progressed, options have emerged and evolved, and it is vital that the UK adapts with the times if it is to continue to offer payment users the best possible options for making payments."