MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Bank of England has detected a technical glitch in its payment system that hinders the completion of transactions, the bank said in a statement Monday.
"The Bank of England has identified a technical issue related to some routine maintenance of the RTGS [real-time gross settlement system] payment system and has paused settlement while we resolve it," the statement from the bank said.
"The most important payments are being made manually and we can reassure the public that all payments made today will be processed," the bank added.
Following the statement, The Financial Times reported that parts of the RTGS for smaller transfers, including direct debits, standing orders and the Faster Payments system were operating as usual.
According to the newspaper, the transactions that have the highest chance of being affected by the issue are house purchases and urgent business payments to suppliers. The bank's spokesperson said the Bank of England would extend its working hours on Monday and increase the system's capacity once it was operational once again.
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom, founded in 1694. The bank is accountable to the House of Commons Treasury Committee. The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee occasionally holds hearings with the bank's officials regarding monetary and financial policy.
