The city’s electronic interbank payment network will not be available for an extended stretch in the early hours this Sunday, as the operator will be undertaking regular system maintenance, according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).
The Faster Payment System (FPS) service will be offline from 1am to 11am on August 18 because of a planned system enhancement to be carried out by Hong Kong Interbank Clearing (HKIC).
Banks and stored value facility (SVF) operators have been asked to provide advance and timely notifications to their customers, the HKMA said in a statement on Monday.
“Members of the public may contact individual banks or SVF operators for more details regarding the availability of the related FPS services that may be affected by the system enhancement,” the statement said.
Launched in 2018, the FPS is a core project of the HKMA to promote financial technology in the local banking system.
The electronic network developed by the HKMA allows registered users to transfer money between different banks using a simple identifier, such as a phone number.
The FPS had 14.95 million registered users in July, according to HKIC data. The number of registered is more than the total population of the city as an individual can have more than one account proxy.
The FPS, which operates 24/7 and supports payments in Hong Kong dollars and renminbi, has grown rapidly in recent years.
Transactions via FPS stood at HK$556 billion (US$71 billion) in July, 39 per cent higher than the HK$371.59 billion a year earlier. This was also higher than physical cheque payments of HK$508.76 billion last month, the HKIC data showed.
