Financial consultancy, financial transaction processing and clearing-house services

Tender description

The Bank of England operates the UK's Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system which provides facilities for banks and other financial institutions to hold sterling central bank reserves and to transfer these in settlement of payment obligations. RTGS lies at the heart of the UK's payment infrastructure, as well as the Bank's mission for monetary and financial stability. On an average day, RTGS settles around £500 billion between banks — around a quarter of the UK's annual GDP — in sterling central bank money. The renewed RTGS service is designed to: respond to the changing structure of the financial system, meet user demand for simpler and more resilient payment pathways, build capacity to interface with new payment technologies as adoption increases, ensure continued resilience in the face of evolving threats such as cyber-attacks, and support the evolution of regulatory and monetary policy tools. To express interest go to https://www.bankofenglandtenders.co.uk by 18.8.2017. The Bank of England announced its intention to replace its existing RTGS service in the publication of the RTGS Blueprint in May 2017. We would like to engage with the supplier market regarding certain aspects of the new RTGS service, such as: — Buy versus Build — The pros/cons of buying technical components versus building them. — Exploring options for the provision of services to support and maintain technical components and to manage future changes. — Options for the provision of Testing services for the RTGS technical asset. — Solutions that would enable the integration of technical components with each other and with other Bank systems in an efficient and cost effective manner. There are several options available to the Bank of England in terms of how these services could be acquired. We are keen to test assumptions through supplier market testing prior to beginning a formal OJEU sourcing activity.