{"id":25709,"date":"2026-04-30T12:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/25709\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T12:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:18:08","slug":"bank-of-englands-successful-modernisation-scheme-could-help-uk-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/25709\/","title":{"rendered":"Bank of England\u2019s successful modernisation scheme could help UK Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Digitally<\/a>image: \u00a9cemagraphics | iStock
\n The Public Accounts Committee has praised the Bank of England\u2019s successful \u00a3431m modernisation of the UK\u2019s payment infrastructure as a model for government IT projects<\/p>\n

By prioritising early modernisation, stable leadership, and a \u201ccompetitive dialogue\u201d procurement process, the Bank avoided the massive cost overruns seen in other public sector digital transformations.<\/p>\n

A report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC),<\/a> released on April 29, 2026, highlights a rare triumph in public sector digital transformation:<\/a> the modernisation of the Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system. This critical infrastructure settles approximately \u00a3790 billion in transactions every single day.<\/p>\n

The PAC is taking the unusual step of using the Bank of England\u2019s (BoE) success as a \u201cmanifesto for action\u201d for the rest of the UK government, contrasting it against disastrous failures like the NS&I transformation, which has ballooned to over \u00a33 billion.<\/p>\n

The blueprint for success<\/p>\n

The BoE managed to deliver its \u00a3431 million project largely on time and on budget by following several key principles that the PAC urges the government to adopt:<\/p>\n

Modernising early:<\/p>\n

Instead of waiting for a \u201cburning platform\u201d where systems fail and force a panicked response, the BoE moved away from legacy systems while they were still functional.<\/p>\n

A \u201cNo Surprises\u201d culture:<\/p>\n

Staff were encouraged to raise concerns early via a \u201ctransparency channel\u201d that allowed for anonymous escalation of issues.<\/p>\n

Stability of leadership:<\/p>\n

The project benefited from senior officers with deep operational backgrounds and a lack of the \u201crevolving door\u201d staff turnover that plagues other government projects.<\/p>\n

Procurement: The competitive dialogue<\/p>\n

The Bank\u2019s approach to hiring contractors was a major factor in its success. They used a \u201ccompetitive dialogue\u201d process, which allowed bidders to develop proposals as part of a consultation before the contract was even awarded.<\/p>\n

Notably, the Bank paid two unsuccessful bidders to perform a trial build of a simplified system. This \u201ccompetitive tension\u201d allowed the BoE to secure a fixed-price contract, retain all intellectual property, and eventually take over the management of the scheme from the lead contractor, Accenture.<\/p>\n

The cost of excellence<\/p>\n

While the project was a success, the PAC noted that the long-term value depends on constant adaptation. The annual running costs for the RTGS system have nearly doubled to \u00a341 million.<\/p>\n

The Chair of the PAC, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, stated that this report serves as a guide for the government to avoid repeating past failures, providing a rare example that public sector digital reform<\/a> doesn\u2019t have to be an \u201cendless litany of failure\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"image: \u00a9cemagraphics | iStock The Public Accounts Committee has praised the Bank of England\u2019s successful \u00a3431m modernisation of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[665,11,5,1261,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-25709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-banks","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-uk-government","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116493621940310806","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}