The new Faster Payments clearing and settlement scheme is being introduced to facilitate near real-time clearing of internet and telephone banking payments and standing orders for UK account customers. The ambitious implementation timescale, agreed by APACS, sees Faster Payments go live in November 2007. Financial Institutions in the UK that are Member or Agency banks must implement systems to ensure that they (and their customers) are capable of testing against the Faster Payments central infrastructure early in 2007.

LogicaCMG initiated the partnership, which sees the three organisations working together to meet the deadlines. Dovetail and Alaric have each been actively engaged in developing a flexible, yet functionally rich Faster Payments solution while LogicaCMG brings its renowned global payments project management and systems integration expertise, combined with existing product knowledge and experience in implementing and testing new payments schemes. This combination of skills will help manage and de-risk the entire implementation process for participating banks.

Dovetail delivers the common payment processing and communications functions that will enable banks to meet the demands of the new payment scheme in the required timescales. This Payment Hub solution is coupled with Alaric's Authentic Faster Payments Gateway solution which provides all the functionality required within an ISO 8583 Gateway to manage communication between the bank and the Faster Payments Central infrastructure (operated by Link and Voca).

The combination of these best-of-breed Java-based solutions delivers a functionally rich operating environment, significantly reducing the risk of a bank's Faster Payments implementation.

LogicaCMG has 30 years of unrivalled experience in designing, delivering and maintaining payments processing infrastructures across both commercial banks and central clearing and settlement organisations in the UK and globally. In the UK LogicaCMG has remained at the centre of developments in the Faster Payments arena since the inception of the concept, and has continued to review the various solutions being made available to the banks for linking to the central infrastructure.

Dave Phillipson, head of payments for LogicaCMG in the UK commented: "The combined solution we will offer in partnerhip with Dovetail Systems and Alaric is now demonstrable via an integrated showcase. This fits with the strategy of a component based payments architecture, which has long been the LogicaCMG vision for the future direction of payments systems. Being one of the first to bring a demonstrable solution to market, and so soon after the specifications were finalised, is a real coup for the three organisations and a testament to the strength of our alliance."