The Payment System Regulators call for views on Phase 2 of the implementation of Confirmation of Payee (CoP) closed at the end of June. The call for views outlined the findings of the PSR's analysis of the impact of Phase 1 of CoP (following Specific Direction 10 which was served on the UK’s six biggest... Continue Reading →
A new change card and app designed to replace coins by start-up Shrap has started real life trials - with the first two pilots now underway in Rochford in Essex and Denny in Scotland as part of the UK's Community Access to Cash Pilots. With a significant reduction in cash use - particularly during the Coronavirus pandemic... Continue Reading →
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 27 June 2021. Key observations for the week ending 27 June 2021 Last week the volume of ATM transactions increased by 1% when compared to the previous week in 2021. Last week the volume of ATM transactions increased by 9% when compared to the equivalent week in 2020. Last... Continue Reading →
Processing 4.5 billion transactions a year the UK’s Direct Debit system is firmly established as a key part of our payments system. In this blog we find out that the UK’s Direct Debit system has inspired innovative thinking in the UAE. This is a guest blog written by Ummair Butt and published by the Emirates Institute for... Continue Reading →
With the Payment Systems Regulator's (PSR) Confirmation of Payee (CoP) closing at the end of June (2021) we are pleased to feature a guest blog from Bob Ford. Bob writes: I have been involved in a number of discussions with @John Bertrand and @Dr Anthony Evans in recent weeks dissecting the questions from the Payments... Continue Reading →
In this June round up of retail payments, as restrictions continue to ease, we see the impact on the volume and value of payments processed in the UK. Note: All data is publicly sourced and is the latest available: Pay.UK May 2021, Link June 2021 and UK Finance March 2021. Source: Pay.UK Limited Bacs Direct... Continue Reading →
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 20 June 2021. Key observations for the week ending 20 June 2021 Last week the volume of ATM transactions decreased by 1% when compared to the previous week in 2021. Last week the volume of ATM transactions increased by 11% when compared to the equivalent week in 2020. Last... Continue Reading →
We are often asked about the parallel developments of the UK and European flavours of Request to Pay and how they might work together. Following the launch of the European version on June 15th, we thought it an ideal time to signpost the bigger differences. Where Request to Pay (and SEPA R2P) have come from The... Continue Reading →
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 13 June 2021. Key observations for the week ending 13 June 2021 Last week the volume of ATM transactions decreased by 0.3% when compared to the previous week in 2021. Last week the volume of ATM transactions increased by 18% when compared to the equivalent week in 2020. Last... Continue Reading →
In John Bertrand’s latest article on Confirmation of Payee he notes that banks / PSPs (Payment Service Providers) not offering Confirmation of Payee (CoP) could be aiding and abetting fraudsters. Inspired by Shakespeare, John wonders: To CoP, or not to CoP, that is the questionWhether 'tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows... Continue Reading →
Alastair Hanton, who has died aged 94, was the inventor of Direct Debit, a founder of National Girobank, and a tireless campaigner for causes ranging from sustainable transport to Christian Aid. It was in 1964, as an executive of Unilever, that Hanton came up with a solution to the problem of collecting variable payments from... Continue Reading →
Is your organisation ready for Request to Pay? Time-lined to coincide with the planned June launch of the Single Euro Payments Area Request to Pay (SEPA Request to Pay), this virtual expert panel discussion tackles the big questions that surround Request to Pay adoption including, when financial services companies should look to adopt it, what... Continue Reading →
Online fraud has blossomed, and it’s easy to become a victim In recent months we’ve seen a dramatic increase in fraudsters exploiting our increased volume of online shopping to con innocent victims into sending vast sums of money and personal details. The latest research published by UK Finance suggests that UK Finance members reported 149,946 incidents of Authorised Push... Continue Reading →
Any glance at any payment statistic, from Faster Payments to contactless, to click and collect and to the growing global trend of Request to Pay, would suggest that cash no longer has a place in any business in this mid- pandemic 2021 digital world. Have digital options even replaced the petty cash tin? In a... Continue Reading →
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 6 June 2021. Key observations for the week ending 6 June 2021 Last week the volume of ATM transactions decreased by 4% when compared to the previous week in 2021. Last week the volume of ATM transactions increased by 18% when compared to the equivalent week in 2020. Last... Continue Reading →
Sarah Rutherford at FICO has commissioned a survey of 1,000 adults in each of fourteen countries to canvas them about their attitudes to opening a range of different financial accounts digitally using websites and apps. Sarah reports that there were some very interesting findings and some results that challenged her pre-conceptions and received wisdom! Sarah’s... Continue Reading →
The Bank of England has today published a Discussion Paper which aims to broaden the debate around new forms of digital money and seek views on the Bank’s emerging thoughts on the subject. These new forms of digital money could be New forms of digital money or privately provided. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is... Continue Reading →
Is your organisation ready for Request to Pay? Join Answer Pay, Accenture and FIS for our virtual expert panel discussion “Request to Pay, Lead or Lag?” on June 22 at 2pm. Time-lined to coincide with the planned June launch of the Single Euro Payments Area Request to Pay (SEPA Request to Pay), this virtual expert panel discussion tackles the big questions... Continue Reading →
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 30 May 2021. Key observations for the week ending 30 May 2021 Last week the volume of ATM transactions increased by 10% when compared to the previous week in 2021. Last week the volume of ATM transactions increased by 23% when compared to the equivalent week in 2020. Last... Continue Reading →
Digiseq have announced a wearables breakthrough through a mobile app that can turn any supported object embedded with an NFC chip into a contactless payment device. The firm's Manage Mii mobile app enables 'Rapid Contactless Personalisation' for consumers to embed any supported object, from shirt cuffs to jewellery, with contactless payment capabilities with just a tap... Continue Reading →
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 23 May 2021. Key observations for the week ending 23 May 2021 Last week the volume of ATM transactions increased by 1% when compared to the previous week in 2021. Last week the volume of ATM transactions increased by 13% when compared to the equivalent week in 2020. Last... Continue Reading →
In this May round up of retail payments, as restrictions begin to ease, we see the impact on the volume and value of payments processed in the UK. Note: All data is publicly sourced and is the latest available: Pay.UK April 2021, Link May 2021 and UK Finance February 2021. Source: Pay.UK Limited Bacs Direct... Continue Reading →
Covid-19 has had an unprecedented effect on people’s lives. Analysing this through the lense of consumer payments, the lockdown measures have had a colossal impact on the majority of businesses as they were forced to shut and people remained indoors in an effort to fight the virus. These measures suppressed normal behaviour and, as a... Continue Reading →
Bank account switches using the UK's Current Account Switching Service have doubled since the start of the year (January 30,841 and April 62,012). Using the April data as a guide this would equate to 744,000 bank account switchers over 12 months compared to circa 1 million switches each year pre-COVID. More: Current Account Switching Service... Continue Reading →
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 16 May 2021. Key observations for the week ending 16 May 2021 Last week the volume of ATM transactions increased by 4% when compared to the previous week in 2021. Last week the volume of ATM transactions increased by 20% when compared to the equivalent week in 2020. Last... Continue Reading →
In this guest blog, Gary Parlett, CEO of Answer Pay shares 5 important facts that make Request to Pay one of the most interesting innovations in the payments space happening in 2021. As a biller, Bank or PSP, have you heard of Request to Pay yet? When I first learnt of the proposition it was... Continue Reading →
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 9 May 2021. Key observations for the week ending 9 May 2021 Last week the volume of ATM transactions decreased by 9% when compared to the previous week in 2021. Last week the volume of ATM transactions increased by 19% when compared to the equivalent week in 2020. Last... Continue Reading →
Get ready for the Request to Pay revolution https://youtu.be/8QTMKsBNiMQ
It all stared with a Which? Super Complaint in 2017 demanding that banks in the UK must do more to protect its customers from Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud. In 2020 the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) service was launched in UK to help reduce fraud and misdirected payments. Confirmation of Payee helps protect consumers and... Continue Reading →
Sellers of the Big Issue, a magazine sold by the homeless across the UK, are now able to accept PayPal QR Code payments, following an accelerated roll out of iZettle card readers to over a third of its vendor network. During the pandemic, The Big Issue has grown the number of vendors with smartphones from 515 to 1,150 and set... Continue Reading →
The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) has published two documents following the conclusion of the second phase of its consultation on Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) and Sweeping. The documents are: VRP and Sweeping User Research Final Report Phase II Feedback Summary and OBIE Response Paper This consultation process was started in November 2020. Feedback from the first phase... Continue Reading →
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 2 May 2021. Key observations for week ending 2 May 2021 Last week ATM transactions increased by 1.6 million (when compared to the previous week). Last week's ATM transactions were 7.3 million more than the equivalent week in 2020. Weekly ATM use has increased by 31% compared to the... Continue Reading →
Over half (55%) of CEOs at Building Societies view Open Banking as an opportunity according to a new report published by Whitecap Consulting, in partnership with the Building Societies Association (BSA). However, this technology is relatively new and unexplored by the sector with just over a third saying that they have not yet assessed Open Banking’s benefits for... Continue Reading →
The UK’s roughly 90 trillion-pound payments industry is on the cusp of a dramatic makeover. Even before Covid-19, payment providers were under pressure to retool their offerings to better serve an increasingly digitised customer base that demands greater flexibility and control over their money. And the pandemic has only served to accelerate this dynamic. Meanwhile,... Continue Reading →
Current account switches match Q3 2020 levels. In this latest dashboard we find out how many of us transferred our bank account in Q1 2021 during Lockdown 3.0 and who the switching winners and losers were as restrictions had eased slightly for many during Q4 2020 and incentives had returned within the market. The number... Continue Reading →
An era when every business is a tech company, and every human has a smart phone. Have you noticed how practically every television ad these days includes an image of a person using a smart device or an app? We live in an era where individuals want-what-they-want-when-they-want-it. And bill payments haven’t escaped this game changing... Continue Reading →
Forbes has recognised Ciaran Savage, founder and Director of UK-based Card Industry Professionals, as one of the ones to watch in Europe in their ‘Class of 2021’. Forbes have featured Ciaran in the Finance category in this year’s ‘Forbes 30 under 30 Europe’ list. Being named in such a prestigious title is a testament to... Continue Reading →
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 25 April 2021. Key observations for week ending 25 April 2021 Last week ATM transactions decreased by 0.7 million (when compared to the previous week). Last week's ATM transactions were 6.9 million more than the equivalent week in 2020. Weekly ATM use has increased by 31% compared to the... Continue Reading →
A guest blog by Conor Sinnott - Conor is an intern at independent financial services consultancy Enryo. Covid-19 has not only driven new changes in consumer habits but also accelerated trends that have been developing since before the turn of the century. This is no more obvious than in the use of cash and coins... Continue Reading →
A guest blog by Bob Ford, Payments Business Analyst and SME. The Pay.UK service of Confirmation of Payee (CoP) has been established for just over a year but the life under lockdown under Covid has not abated the attempts by fraudsters to endeavour to try and scam our accounts of our money. A friend asked... Continue Reading →
Answer Pay has announced the go-live of its Request to Pay demonstrator - the new demonstrator enables billers, payers and payment services providers to experience the full Request to Pay journey for the first time, providing a greater understanding of the huge benefits of bill payments utilising Request to Pay. Request to Pay addresses the... Continue Reading →
On this day (22 April 2021) in 1996 Real Time Gross Settlement in CHAPS went live - join me and raise a glass to celebrate 25 years of RTGS in the UK. In this edition of Payments:Unpacked we take a look at the CHAPS payment system UK’s Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system operated by the Bank of... Continue Reading →
In this April round up of retail payments, we see the impact of the final month of Lockdown 3.0 on the volume and value of payments processed in the UK. Note: All data is publicly sourced and is the latest available: Pay.UK March 2021, Link April 2021 and UK Finance January 2021. Source: Pay.UK Limited... Continue Reading →
Digital overlays use real-time payments to settle a payment or transaction, or to provide an ancillary service for a real-time payments method; these are services over and above the core payment processing that adds value to the standard payments. These can be used to improve the workflows and customer experience in a range of payment... Continue Reading →
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 18 April 2021. Key observations for week ending 18 April 2021 Last week ATM transactions increased by 4.6 million (when compared to the previous week). Last week's ATM transactions were 9.7 million more than the equivalent week in 2020. Weekly ATM use has increased by 48% compared to the... Continue Reading →
A clever and innovative service from Europe is arriving on our shores. Viacash allows allows cash withdrawals and deposits at the checkout via barcode. This also means you can pay cash for online purchases Barzahlen/viacash is the largest bank-independent payment infrastructure in Europe. It allows cash withdrawals and deposits at the checkout via barcode. Here’s... Continue Reading →
Can green Fintech’s save the planet? In the latest edition of #fincuts Tanya Thourani asks: How cool is it if your card doesn't just buy things but fights climate change? How cool is it if Fintechs could convert pounds into kilograms of carbon emitted?Can you tell which is killing more turtles: the plastic straw or your friend’s flight from... Continue Reading →
Visa report one billion additional touch-free Visa payments made as consumers embrace contactless commerce. Visa report that: Less than a year since contactless limits increased across Europe, Visa has hit one billion additional touch-free transactions, 400 million of which took place in the UK. Consumers and merchants are increasingly turning to contactless payments as a secure... Continue Reading →
As the Payment System Regulator considers the responses to the call for views on Authorised Push Payment Scams Teresa Connors from Payment Matters considers whether the proposed measures to fight fraud might have unintended consequences. We are pleased to feature this perspective guest blog from Teresa Connors from Payment Matters. Only 45% of reported Authorised... Continue Reading →
Weekly ATM value and volume figures 11 April 2021. Key observations for week ending 11 April 2021 Last week ATM transactions decreased by 2.4 million (when compared to the previous week). Last week's ATM transactions were 4.9 million more than the equivalent week in 2020. Weekly ATM use has increased by 24% compared to the... Continue Reading →
