What FPS offers

FPS supports immediate credit transfer payments such as person-to-person (P2P) payment, salary payment, e-commerce payment, online shopping payment, point-of-sale (POS) payment and business-to-business (B2B) payment.

How to make a real time credit transfer payment?

A payer will generally go through the following steps when making a credit transfer payment in FPS through a bank or an SVF, for example:

1. A payer wants to transfer HK$100 from a bank account to a payee’s electronic wallet.  The payer logs on to his mobile/internet/telephone banking after going through normal checks by his bank to verify that he or she is the genuine customer.  The payer then initiates an FPS credit transfer by inputting the payment details, such as the payee’s account number, payment currency and payment amount.
2. When the payer confirms making the credit transfer payment, his bank normally checks that payer’s account balance is sufficient and debits the payment amount from that bank’s account.  The payer’s bank then submits the credit transfer payment request to FPS in favour of the payee’s account which is an electronic wallet maintained with a stored value facility (SVF) licensed in Hong Kong.
3. The SVF verifies and confirms that the payee’s account number is valid and sends a confirmation message to FPS that it has accepted the payment.
4. FPS will debit HK$100 from the payer’s bank and credit the payee’s SVF, and notify the bank and SVF concerned that the credit transfer is completed in FPS.  The SVF will credit HK$100 sent by the payer to the payee’s electronic wallet.
5. The payer’s bank and the payee’s SVF will mark the credit transfer as completed and notify the payer and payee the completion of the payment respectively via their own means.

The payer and payee should generally be able to see the credit transfer payment be made within seconds if his/her bank and SVF participate in real time FPS payment service.  If a bank or SVF has not opted for real time FPS payment processing and has opted for periodic processing instead, their users may find a credit transfer payment not processed in real time.  Users can make use of the FPS payment service offered by the banks or SVFs participating in FPS and enquire from them the service level of their FPS payment service.  This website provides a full list of the FPS participants.

How to make a real time credit transfer payment using Addressing Service?

Suppose a payee has registered a mobile phone number in the Addressing Service. The payer can input the payee’s mobile phone number when sending a credit transfer payment instead of remembering the payee’s SVF account number.  When the payer initiates the credit transfer payment to the bank (Step 1), the bank will provide the payee’s masked account name, for example, CHAN T** M**, for the payer’s confirmation to proceed with the payment (Step A) as an additional step before submitting the credit transfer payment request to FPS (Step 2).

FPS supports immediate direct debit payments such as account top-up payment, bill payment, e-commerce payment initiated by the payee which, in most cases, will be a merchant.  A direct debit payment usually requires pre-authorisation by the payer to debit the payer’s account (see more on “eDDA”)

How to make a real time direct debit payment?

A payee (e.g. a merchant) is the party initiating a direct debit payment and will generally go through the following steps when making a direct debit payment in FPS through a bank or an SVF, for example:

1. A merchant wants to debit HK$350 for a monthly tutorial fee from its customer who has already set up a direct debit authorisation for the merchant to collect the monthly fee from his/her bank account. The merchant initiates a direct debit payment request to its bank providing the payment details, for example, the payer’s account number, payment currency and payment amount.
2. The merchant’s bank submits the direct debit payment request to FPS which forwards the payment request to the payer’s bank for processing.
3. The payer’s bank verifies that the payer’s account number is valid with sufficient balance and pre-authorised direct debit limit, and sends a confirmation message to FPS that it has accepted the direct debit payment.
4. FPS will debit HK$350 from the payer’s bank and credit the merchant’s bank, and notify both banks that the direct debit is completed in FPS. The merchant’s bank will credit HK$350 sent by the payer to the merchant’s bank account.
5. The merchant’s bank and payer’s bank will mark the direct debit payment as completed.

Users can make use of the FPS payment service offered by the banks or SVFs participating in FPS and enquire from them the service level of their FPS payment service.  This website provides a full list of the FPS participants and their service subscription information.

Addressing Service is a value-added service in FPS to enhance user’s payment experience and convenience by representing an account number of a bank or an SVF by a mobile phone number, an email address or an FPS identifier (FPS ID) assigned by FPS.  A payee who has registered, for example, his/her mobile phone number in the Addressing Service can tell his/her friends to input the mobile phone number to send an FPS payment instead of an account number of a bank or an SVF.

How to register in the Addressing Service?

A user of the Addressing Service will generally go through the following steps through a bank or an SVF, for example:

1. A user wants to register a mobile phone number 90000001 through his or her bank’s mobile/internet/telephone banking so that other users of FPS can identify the user using the mobile phone number without revealing the underlying bank account number directly.  The user initiates the addressing registration request through Bank A to link up the mobile phone with the bank account.
   1. If this is the first time the user registers a mobile phone number in the Addressing service, the bank account in Bank A will become his or her default account for receiving FPS payments.
   2. As the addressing service also supports a customer to register more than one account with the same mobile phone number, the user needs to select whether or not this account will be  the default account for receiving FPS payment, i.e. changing the default account setting, when making the registration request.  In this example, the user selects this as the default account.
2. Bank A verifies that the user is the genuine holder of the bank account and mobile phone number through the appropriate means adopted by Bank A.
3. After successful verification, Bank A submits the user’s addressing registration request to FPS.
4. FPS will provide Bank A with a summary of all prior addressing record(s) associated with that mobile phone number, if any, to show to the user, each containing the masked name of the record owner and bank/SVF having such record(s).  The user should verify them and cancel any prior record(s) that do not belong to him or her just in case that mobile phone number was recycled from a prior owner who might have forgotten to remove these addressing record(s), to ensure that all future payments are addressed correctly to the user’s account.
5. After verifying the summary record(s), the user confirms to proceed with the addressing registration.
6. FPS sends a registration confirmation to Bank A which then informs the user the completion of the addressing registration.  (As the user has switched its default account to Bank A for receiving FPS payments, the original default account bank/SVF will receive a change in default account notification from FPS separately to notify the user of the change.)

The addressing registration process is the same for an email address.  FPS also provides the option of an FPS ID to represent the account number of a bank or an SVF, other than a mobile phone number or email address.  The addressing registration process is more or less the same except that the verification in Step 5 is no longer necessary as FPS identifier is assigned by FPS and is mapped to only one account number of a bank or an SVF.  Users can make use of the FPS Addressing Service offered by the banks or SVFs participating in FPS and enquire from them the service level of their FPS service.  This website provides a full list of the FPS participants and their service subscription information.

How to make a real time credit transfer payment using Addressing Service? (Know more)

eDDA (electronic direct debit authorisation) is a value-added service in FPS for supporting the payer’s pre-authorisation on debiting the payer’s account by direct debit payments initiated in FPS. eDDA can facilitate various direct debit payment usage such as account top-up payment, bill payment, e-commerce payment, etc. initiated by the payee. FPS supports two types of eDDA established by the payer (Standard eDDA) and by the payee (Simplified eDDA)

A. Setting up a Standard eDDA (i.e. eDDA initiated by the payer)

When a payer sets up an eDDA with a payee (e.g. a merchant) through FPS, he/she will generally go through the following steps, for example:

1. A payer wants to setup an eDDA with a merchant which can initiate direct debit payment upon the payer’s future purchase of merchandise at the merchant’s online store.  The payer initiates an eDDA via the mobile/internet/telephone banking after going through normal checks by the bank to verify that he or she is the genuine customer.  The payer inputs the details of the eDDA such as the payer’s bank account number, the merchant’s bank account number, payment limit, periodicity, etc. as required by the bank.
2. The payer’s bank verifies and submits the eDDA setup request to FPS which forwards it to the merchant’s bank for processing.
3. The merchant’s bank will validate the merchant’s bank account number to be valid and confirms with FPS that the eDDA setup is accepted.
4. The payer’s bank and merchant’s bank notify the payer and merchant the completion of the eDDA setup.

B. Setting up a Simplified eDDA (i.e. eDDA initiated by the payee)

When a payee sets up an eDDA with a payer through FPS, he/she will generally go through the following steps:

1. A payee who has an SVF account would like to set up an eDDA as the payee account for debiting his or her bank account for replenishing her SVF account balance as and when needed.  Through the SVF’s payment application, the payee initiates an eDDA setup request after going through normal checks by the SVF to verify that he or she is the genuine customer.  The payee inputs the details of the eDDA such as the payer bank account number, payment limit, periodicity, etc. as required by the SVF.
2. The SVF verifies and submits the eDDA setup request to FPS which forwards it to the payer’s bank for processing.  In most cases, the SVF will obtain an indemnity from the payee and to give a similar indemnity to the payer’s bank for processing payer’s eDDA and subsequent direct debit payments without checking with the payer again who gave the eDDA instruction.
3. The payer’s bank will validate the payer’s bank account number and the abovementioned indemnity to be valid and confirms with FPS that the eDDA setup is accepted.
4. The SVF and payer bank will notify the customer separately the completion of the eDDA setup.