The Bank of London joins Bacs payment network

By Gloria Methri

The Bank of London has joined the Bacs payment network, allowing account-to-account payments between banks in the UK.

Bankers’ Automated Clearing Services (Bacs) is a payment scheme founded in 1968 that allows individual transactions below £20 million in the UK and its Crown Dependencies, The Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, and Gibraltar.

It processes Bacs Direct Credits which are widely used to pay salaries, benefits, dividends, and supplier payments directly into UK bank accounts. It also processes Direct Debits, which automate the collection of regular payments and is the preferred payment method for many UK billpayers.

According to the scheme, more than 150 billion transactions have been debited or credited to British bank accounts via Bacs since its inception and, in 2021 alone, the payment system facilitated 6.5 billion payments, at a value of more than £5 trillion.

The Bank of London will now become a Directly Connected Settling Participant (DCSP) of Bacs, which is owned and operated by Pay.UK.

“The Bank of London is one of only 31 participants of Bacs for the whole of the UK and one of only a handful of DCSPs,” said Felipe Hillard, Chief Customer & Product Officer, UK of The Bank of London. “Joining allows us to provide a world-class experience to our clients and deliver new value, by stepping forwards and opening up access to a broader financial ecosystem as we integrate in the next few months with other rails, including CHAPS, SEPA, and many others.”

Pay.UK is also responsible for managing the Faster Payment System, which enables 24/7 instant GBP payments between bank accounts in the UK. In March 2022, The Bank of London joined the Faster Payment System as DCSP.

David Piper, Pay.UK’s Head of Service Lines, said, “As we approach the end of 2022, we’re pleased to welcome another direct Bacs customer, in The Bank of London. Increasing participation in our payment systems can only be positive for end-users, and all those who stand to benefit from greater choice in the way they pay and are paid.”