BoE plans for 24/7 RTGS as digital assets push global markets to continuous settlement

Digital assets are pushing global markets towards a 24/7, always-on system. BoE's latest plan on extending RTGS settlement hours is one of the clearest signals yet of where this is heading.

Central banks historically extended RTGS infrastructure because of trade and banking globalization. This phase is different. The pressure now comes from:

- 24/7 digital asset markets

- tokenized collateral mobility

- programmable liquidity

As the US embraces USD stablecoins and Europe plans its defence with digital EUR, if London wants to remain globally relevant as a wholesale financial center, UK's CHAPS and RTGS cannot remain “business-hours infrastructure.”

➡️ So what is actually changing?

1️⃣ CHAPS hours are being extended

 From September 2027, opening moves from 06:00 to 01:30 on weekdays

 → increasing settlement availability from 12 hours to 16.5 hours per day

2️⃣ The real signal: a path to near-24/7 settlement

The BoE is now consulting on:

- weekend settlement (likely Sundays + some bank holidays) from ~2029

- further extension toward ~22-hour daily operations by ~2031

The direction of travel is clear: toward 22x6, and eventually near-continuous settlement.

➡️ Why this matters

Extended settlement hours are described as necessary to support:

- international overlap with other markets

- liquidity efficiency

- operational resilience

- future innovation in payments and financial markets

- new forms of money such as stablecoins and tokenized deposits 

➡️ Implications for institutions are particularly important:

1️⃣ Liquidity management becomes continuous

Treasury operations increasingly move from end-of-day liquidity optimization toward intraday and eventually continuous liquidity orchestration.

2️⃣ Tokenized deposits gain stronger institutional foundations

Extended RTGS availability makes tokenized commercial bank money materially more useful because redemption and settlement windows widen significantly.

3️⃣ Tokenized collateral mobility becomes more viable

Collateral movement across repo, derivatives, and securities financing markets becomes operationally easier if central bank settlement windows overlap with tokenized asset markets.

In this future, banks cannot simply “stretch shifts longer.” Near-24x7 settlement eventually requires automation-heavy operating models, exception-based workflows, and more autonomous treasury infrastructure.

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