Mobile Payments Service Paym Has 1.8m UK Users

Mobile payments service Paym has now been used by more than 1.8 million people in the UK since its launch in January 2013.

Paym was set up by the Payments Council to enable transfers between bank accounts just using mobile numbers and has now been used for payments totalling £26 million.

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Although individual banks, such as Barclays, had offered their own mobile payments services, these only worked for account holders at that particular bank. By contrast, Paym’s cross-bank platform now has the support of most UK banks.

Paym uses the Faster Payment Service (FPS) utilised by similar mobile payment apps to facilitate quicker transfers, while the underlying network technology is provided by VocaLink, the firm currently used to process more than 90 per cent of UK salaries.

Craig Tillotson, the managing director of Paym, told Computer Weekly that the service is now available for nine out of 10 current account holders in the UK.

“Paym means securely settling up with friends and family for weekend fun has never been easier,” he said. “No sort codes, no account numbers and no cash needed.”

The service is already supported by Clydesdale Bank, Isle of Man Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank, Halifax, Yorkshire Bank, Barclays, NatWest , Cumberland Building Society, Danske Bank, First Direct, Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander and TSB. Meanwhile, Ipagoo, Nationwide Building Society, Metro Bank and Tesco Bank are expected to join the platform later this year.

A recent online survey of 2,499 adults sponsored by Paym found that the most popular use for the service was repaying friends, with 21 per cent making transfers for this reason. 28 per cent of respondents cited the convenience of simply using mobile phone numbers as Paym’s main advantage.

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Paym also disclosed that 66 per cent of the UK population is currently aware of mobile payments, a figure that will need to increase if the service is to achieve its target of reaching one billion payments by the end of 2018.