The Bank of England has blamed a "global payments issue" for delaying high-value and time-sensitive payments in the UK.

The United Kingdom's central bank said that any payments made Thursday through the CHAPS interbank payment system had been delayed, but would be paid before the end of the day.

There are an average of 200,000 payments via CHAPs every day in the UK, for a total of £363 billion ($470bn), with banks and lenders using the service to transfer money.

Individuals use it for large purchases, including houses and cars. Retail and credit card payments were not impacted.

The issue appears to have originated with a problem with the global Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) service, although other nations' financial infrastructure was not affected.

"We are pleased to confirm that the third-party supplier has restored service following their earlier issues, and CHAPS payments are settling as normal," the BoE said in a statement.