The company’s UK Faster Payments solution handles the entire life cycle from both outgoing and incoming payments, to instruction routing and the management of returns and refusals. The solution is based on the company’s Open Payments Framework, a library of component building blocks from which payments solutions can be derived.

Marc Terry, MD of Belgium-based Clear2Pay, said: Banks are being urged to take action now, but obviously this is a strategic issue which requires a long-term view with solutions that can be implemented in an evolutionary fashion, as of today.

The Office of fair Trading has set up a task force in the UK to identify whether clearing times for payments can be speeded up.