After joining Faster Payments, Metro Bank partners Post Office

Thus, the bank will become the first new high street bank to enable its customers to benefit from being connected directly to the payment system, since the service was launched in 2008.

More payment service providers (PSPs) are making efforts to join the service, underlining Faster Payments’ commitment to level the playing field for access, promote competition and ensure the full real-time service is available to as many end users as possible. The number of direct participants is expected to double over the next 18 months.

Along with the 13 participants that currently connect directly to the payment system, a further 400 PSPs access it indirectly through a sponsor bank.

Independent research commissioned by Faster Payments predicts the size of the UK real-time payments market is likely to almost treble in the next five years, with annualised growth of 20% forecast, leading to 3.3 billion Faster Payments being sent in 2020 alone.

More than this, the bank has announced that all new and existing business customers are now able to use Post Office branches to carry out their routine transactions.

To support its fast growing customer base, Metro Bank has enabled its business and commercial customers to use the Post Office’s network of more than 11,600 branches to deposit cash and cheques, as well as obtain change.