Launched in 1994, CHAPS1 provides a same-day, or near real-time, electronic payment system for higher value payments, which handled £70.1 trillion of funds transfers in 2013.2 That equated to £277 billion each day, with CHAPS routinely processing on a weekly basis sums equivalent to the UK’s gross domestic product.3 Altogether the UK’s payments systems handle more than 20 billion transactions each year, with a total value of over £75 trillion.4 As the most significant processor of high-value payments, CHAPS is an essential cog in the machinery of commerce and finance. It is familiar to most individuals as the system employed by mortgage providers and solicitors when purchasing a home. It is also the system employed for inter-bank transfers and a principal mode of discharging larger commercial debts. As such, CHAPS routinely handles six-figure, seven-figure and even larger sums in sterling, apparently on the basis of matching 14 digits alone: that is, the payee’s sort code and account number. The conduct, competitiveness and integrity of such payment systems has become an increasing concern of central bankers and financial regulators, with the UK having recently established a Payment Systems Regulator, under the aegis of the Financial Conduct Authority to promote competition and innovation and to ensure that such systems are operated in the interests of end-users.5