Hong Kong Monetary Authority – Site relocation of the Faster Payment System on 19 December 2021

The Faster Payment System (FPS) service will be unavailable from 1:00 am to 11:00 am on 19 December 2021 (Sunday) due to the relocation of system site of the Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Limited (HKICL), the operator of the FPS. 

After successfully completing the testing on 14 November 2021 to address the issues encountered in the system site relocation and upgrade on 17 October, the HKICL has decided to proceed with the system site relocation and upgrade on 19 December.  Based on the successful experience on 14 November, the upcoming exercise is likely to take lesser amount of time to complete.  Yet, for prudence sake, a comparable service unavailability period is scheduled for the exercise to allow sufficient time to deal with any unforeseeable scenarios.  During the planned service unavailability period, all FPS services, including real-time fund transfers and registration of account proxy with the FPS, will not be available. 

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has requested banks and stored value facility (SVF) operators to provide advance and timely notifications to their customers.  Members of the public may contact individual banks or SVF operators for more details regarding the FPS services that may be affected during the period when system site relocation is carried out.  In case of need, members of the public may make advance arrangements for their payment activities. 

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
22 November 2021