Card Payment Tracker

UK Residents cards in issue Source: UK Finance Card transactions by UK cardholders both in the UK and overseas: There were 2 billion debit card transactions in January, 13.4 per cent more than in January 2022. The total spend of £64.7 billion was 12.1 per cent higher than January 2022. There were 321.3 million credit... Continue Reading →

Choosing the open banking strategy that fits your bank’s needs is now easier

As technology evolves and is more present in our lives, consumers are beginning to ask why banking services cannot be as intuitive as managing their music playlists. Higher consumer expectations combined with the currently fast-changing environment brought by open banking make banks jump into new innovative waters.  In the past, banks’ open banking strategies have... Continue Reading →

Unlocking the power of open banking payments

We live in a world where the financial industry is rapidly changing. A new generation of players is challenging traditional banks, the financial technology landscape is quickly evolving, and alternative payment methods are emerging. In many of these changes, open banking has played a key role.  Since its advent five years ago, open banking –... Continue Reading →

Take Five to Stop Fraud Week Update: SurePay Launches Online Portal for UK Banks and PSPs to Perform Confirmation of Payee Checks

SurePay, the leading provider of payment verification solutions, has announced the launch of an online portal that enables UK banks and payment service providers (PSPs) to perform Confirmation of Payee checks. This innovative solution can be offered alongside SurePay's existing Confirmation of Payee solution, which helps banks protect their customers against fraud, and ensures compliance... Continue Reading →

Simple, reliable and stress-free switching

Nine million switches The UK’s Current Account Switch Service (CASS) will always be special to me, responsibility for the launch and guardian of the service for the first five years of its operation is an experience that I will always cherish. After almost 9 million switches since the service was launched in 2013 it is... Continue Reading →

ATM Tracker

ATM value and volume figures for March 2023. Daily LINK ATM transaction volumes: The following graphs depict the daily withdrawal value for March across the last four years and together show the pattern across the whole month. The impact of the first lockdown can be seen in the withdrawal values for 2020 falling from the... Continue Reading →

Consumer Duty: Are customers at the heart of your business? It’s your duty to prove it (and fast)

Consumer Duty: Are customers at the heart of your business? It’s your duty to prove it (and fast) https://open.spotify.com/episode/1prjgp7NQ3ijxP4cxu6hpf?si=xVnRU6AUQHeSpsQ4ycGCKA Teresa Connors from Payment Matters shares her thoughts on Consumer Duty… We’re at an inflexion point, as firms are becoming aware / coming out of denial / realising it’s not just a compliance thing and tackling the enormity of... Continue Reading →

Payments Tracker

In this third round up of retail payments in 2023, for the 12 months to the end of February 2023, we continue to see double digit growth in the volume and value of Faster payments and double digit decline in paper clearing. The growth in volume and value for the UK's bulk clearing scheme and... Continue Reading →

It was all because of ice cream!

Since its launch over half a century ago, Bacs Direct Debit has certainly become an embedded, hassle free, frictionless and pre-eminent way of making recurring payments.  However, the UK’s pre-eminent recurring payment solution is facing its greatest challenge. Will Direct Debits compete, coexist, complement or converge with Request to Pay and Variable Recurring Payments?  As the new recurring payment kids on the block... Continue Reading →

Out with the old, in with the new

Paym: I hardly knew you Paym is (and from tomorrow (7 March 2023) was) a mobile payment system operated by Pay.UK and offered by the majority of the UK’s banks and building societies. Recipients are identified by their mobile phone number rather than their bank sort code and account number.  At the end of 2022 the service was... Continue Reading →

ATM Tracker

ATM value and volume figures for February 2023. Daily LINK ATM transaction volumes: The following graph depicts the daily withdrawal value across the last four years showing the latter half of the month. The amount of cash taken from ATMs in recent weeks remains below the pre-pandemic 2020 levels and ahead of Lockdown impacted 2021... Continue Reading →

Allica Bank Embraces SurePay’s Confirmation of Payee Solution to Protect Customers Against Fraud and Misdirection

London/Utrecht 7 March 2023 - SurePay, the European leading Confirmation of Payee provider, has today announced that UK fintech Allica Bank has implemented its UK Confirmation of Payee solution to protect consumers against fraud and misdirected online payments. CoP is designed to help customers avoid sending payments to the wrong account through fraud or human error... Continue Reading →

Five things businesses need to know about the UK’s New Payments Architecture

Five things businesses need to know about the UK’s New Payments Architecture The Payments Podcast by Bottomline https://soundcloud.com/thepaymentspodcast/5-things-businesses-need-to-know-about-the-uks-new-payment-architecture-npa?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing In this podcast I joined Bottomline’s Richard Ransom to discuss what changes corporates can expect from the planned New Payments Archtecture (NPA) and consider how it might impact their business.  We also explored what the NPA means for Bacs,... Continue Reading →

Payments Tracker

In this second round up of retail payments in 2023, for the 12 months to the end of January 2023, we continue to see double digit growth in the volume and value of Faster payments and double digit decline in paper clearing. The growth in volumes for the UK's bulk clearing scheme and the UK's... Continue Reading →

ATM Tracker

ATM value and volume figures for January 2023. Daily LINK ATM transaction volumes: The following graph depicts the daily withdrawal value across the last four years. The amount of cash taken from ATMs in recent weeks has been remarkably similar to the equivalent day in 2022. Source: LINK Daily withdrawal values had continued to be... Continue Reading →

Payments Tracker

In this first round up of retail payments in 2023, which covers the 12 months to December 2022, double digit growth in Faster payments and double digit decline in paper clearing continues with a steady state for the UK's bulk clearing scheme and growth in the volume and value of the UK's real time gross... Continue Reading →

Card Tracker

Source: UK Finance The UK Finance Update for October 2022 reports: Card transactions by UK cardholders both in the UK and overseas: There were 2.2 billion debit card transactions in October, 12.4 per cent more than in October 2021. The total spend of £66.6 billion was 9.1 per cent higher than October 2021. There were... Continue Reading →

Ask the Payment Systems Regulator – a Q&A podcast with Nick Davey

Ask the Payment Systems Regulator - a Q&A podcast with Nick Davey Nick Davey from the Payment Systems Regulator joins us for our latest Payments:Unpacked video podcast. In this podcast Nick answers questions that have been asked by readers of the Payments:Unpacked newsletter and Mike’s Linked In connections. https://youtu.be/LS4VVwIzGeo Hear Nick’s answers to: What are the biggest near-term challenges for... Continue Reading →

ATM Tracker

Weekly ATM value and volume figures 15 January 2023. Key observations for the week ending 15 January 2023: The volume of ATM Transactions decreased by 39% when compared to the final week before the first COVID lockdown. The volume of ATM transactions increased by 7% when compared to the previous week. The volume of ATM... Continue Reading →

It pays to get started now

Payments made personal, easy and more secure SurePay's Confirmation of Payee (CoP) service is an innovative, real-time name checking solution that gives UK payers greater assurance that their payments are going to the intended recipient.   By confirming the payee’s name matches with the name on the intended recipient’s bank account, CoP helps avoid mis-directed payments... Continue Reading →

ATM Tracker

Weekly ATM value and volume figures 08 January 2023. Key observations for the week ending 08 January 2023: The volume of ATM Transactions decreased by 43% when compared to the final week before the first COVID lockdown. The volume of ATM transactions increased by 14% when compared to the previous week. The volume of ATM... Continue Reading →

ATM Tracker

Weekly ATM value and volume figures 01 January 2023. Key observations for the week ending 01 January 2023: The volume of ATM Transactions decreased by 50% when compared to the final week before the first COVID lockdown. The volume of ATM transactions decreased by 35% when compared to the previous week in December 2022. The... Continue Reading →

A new contender enters the African payments industry

Payments:Unpacked reader Hamish Houston has launched a new contender in the African payments industry - here's an introduction to enza A team of highly-experienced payments industry professionals have today launched the enza group (enza), a payments company focused on servicing the growing needs of banks, fintechs, and MNOs across the African continent. The African consumer... Continue Reading →

ATM Tracker

Weekly ATM value and volume figures 25 December 2022. Key observations for the week ending 25 December 2022: The volume of ATM Transactions decreased by 23% when compared to the final week before the first COVID lockdown. The volume of ATM transactions increased by 10% when compared to the previous week in 2022. The volume... Continue Reading →

Enhance your payments knowledge in 2023

Having published over 400 editions of Payments:Unpacked I am astounded by the ever growing number of active subscribers (‘free’ and ‘paid for’), the lack of unsubscribes and for the numerous compliments and encouragements I receive from a wide range of people across the payments niche that we inhabit. Indeed what better accolade can there be... Continue Reading →

Payments Tracker

In this final round up of retail payments in 2022, we see how the UK's bulk clearing scheme is holding is own, compare double digit growth in instant payments with double dight decline in the last bastion of paper clearing and, we are grateful, that the UK's real time gross settlement system remains a mystery... Continue Reading →

ATM Tracker

Weekly ATM value and volume figures 18 December 2022. Key observations for the week ending 18 December 2022: The volume of ATM Transactions decreased by 30% when compared to the final week before the first COVID lockdown. The volume of ATM transactions decreased by 2% when compared to the previous week in 2022. The volume... Continue Reading →

Growing concern on cash acceptance 

New research published today by LINK, the UK’s cash access and ATM network, shows nearly half (45%) of people have been somewhere where cash has not been accepted, or has been discouraged. In the past eight weeks, the locations where cash acceptance has been the most limited has been car parks, cafes and restaurants as... Continue Reading →

ATM Tracker

Weekly ATM value and volume figures 11 December 2022. Key observations for the week ending 11 December 2022: The volume of ATM Transactions decreased by 29% when compared to the final week before the first COVID lockdown. The volume of ATM transactions decreased by 6% when compared to the previous week in 2022. The volume... Continue Reading →

Wherever and whenever with Pix

As a reader of Payments:Unpacked you will know that payment systems are vital to a country’s economy and play a remarkable role in ensuring that payment for the goods and services consumed are efficient, safe, resilient and friction-free. Given the popularity of last week’s “Don’t worry about it, I’ll Tikkie you” briefing we will now take a... Continue Reading →

ATM Tracker

Weekly ATM value and volume figures 04 December 2022. Key observations for the week ending 04 December 2022: The volume of ATM Transactions decreased by 25% when compared to the final week before the first COVID lockdown. The volume of ATM transactions increased by 6% when compared to the previous week in 2022. The volume... Continue Reading →

Don’t worry about it, I’ll Tikkie you

As a reader of Payments:Unpacked you will know that payment systems are vital to the UK economy and play a remarkable role in ensuring that payment for the goods and services we all consume are efficient, safe, resilient and friction-free. One remaining area of payment friction is actually asking someone for some money to settle up for... Continue Reading →

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