Iliad Solutions has launched its T3 test and certification platform for New Payments Architecture (NPA), strengthening Pay.UK ’s Self Validation Testing. The newly launched solution by Iliad is used in precertification mode to underpin the Pay.UK Self Validation Testing.

The general release is further enhanced to integrate and simulate the back-end systems that financial institutions use to interoperate with NPA. This results in a fully automated end-to-end-solution. Getting ready for the NPA upgrade The testing platform is being offered as an option by Iliad so financial institutions wishing to join NPA can onboard safely, securely, and self-certify in the testing process.

NPA will be one of the biggest upgrades UK payment systems have seen in a generation. As such Pay.UK’s testing strategy has been meticulously designed to support the programme ensuring that the NPA framework can be validated across the entire ecosystem. Iliad’s testing option forms part of an ongoing partnership between Pay.UK and Iliad Solutions with both parties previously collaborating on Faster Payments, and Confirmation of Payee (CoP), the name checking service for UK-based real-time payments.

Executives from Ilian Solutions said that Pay.UK’s groundbreaking payment initiatives have been created by the strength of its internal capabilities and the expertise provided by its chosen third partner partners like Iliad. For over 25 years, Iliad Solutions has been building, implementing, and supporting major payment solutions. This experience has allowed Iliad to develop comprehensive and resilient testing solutions.

They are happy to be supporting Pay.UK once again. More financial institutions increase readiness for NPA In November 2022, Finastra has committed to the development and roll-out of functionality required to support readiness for UK’s New Payments Architecture (NPA). Finastra’s cloud-based payments technology and collaboration with new and established bank and technology partners, such as Microsoft, will support banks’ compliance with the infrastructure changes ahead of the 2024 deadline.

The number of banking payments processed via the current Faster Payments Service (FPS) grew by 23% from 2020 to 2021, reaching 3.6 billion, and is predicted to continue rising year on year (UK Finance), as per the press release. NPA, the new payment scheme by Pay.UK, the operator of the FPS, will provide the infrastructure to accommodate this growth. However, banks still using legacy systems may experience delayed readiness and ongoing challenges in adapting to future developments, such as the new ISO 20022 messaging standard, a requirement for NPA.

As a native ISO 20022 solution, Finastra’s Fusion Payments To Go addresses such challenges, simplifying compliance efforts, enabling rapid NPA readiness, and unlocking new opportunities, both for the initial phase of immediate payment support and downstream when BACS is migrated. Integrated with value-added services such as real-time fraud detection and liquidity monitoring via FusionFabric.cloud, it will enable banks to adhere to the new way of managing clearing and settlement of UK interbank payments. The solution, alongside Finastra’s ongoing engagement with Pay.UK, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), and the Bank of England, will ensure banks can seamlessly address both regulatory and business implications.

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