The UK Payments Council says that over a million people have registered to use its mobile payments service, Paym, since the service launched in April this year. During that time just over £6.5 million has been sent using the service.
Customers of Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Cumberland Building Society, Danske Bank, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander and TSB have been able to send and receive Paym payments since April 29th 2014, meaning the one million users’ milestone has been reached within 100 days of the service going live.
Later this year, Paym will expand further becoming available to more than nine out of ten current account holders.
An increase in consumer awareness and confidence in mobile payments services has also been highlighted. With figures showing that the awareness of mobile payment services amongst consumers increased from 45 percent before the launch of Paym up to 75 percent just a week after the service became available.
Of those already using Paym, 65 percent are confident in its ability to be a safe and secure way to transfer money to family and friends.
All customers need to do is register their mobile number and select the current account they want to receive payments into; then there is no need for the person sending them money to know sort codes or account numbers.
Payment is integrated into the existing mobile banking or payment apps offered by participating banks and building societies, meaning customers benefit from the same security protection when making payments.
Jemma Smith, Director of Communications & Education at the Payments Council said:
“I think that securely paying back friends and family using just their mobile number will become second nature — and we’ll wonder why we ever did anything else. The next big step forward is more banks and building societies joining before the end of the year, and as a result we look forward to millions more people signing up and using the service.”
