UK bank customers will soon be able to send and receive money using their mobile phone number by signing up to the new Paym service, which launches on 29 April.
Registration has opened for customers of a number of banks and building societies – the service ties a user’s number to a nominated current account. By signing up now, customers will ensure they can receive money from the launch data, although registration is not required for payees to send money if it is done through a bank’s mobile application.
Paym will be operated by the Payments Council, which claims that bank customers give out an average of £255.81 a year in informal loans to share the cost of expenses such as lunch or household bills, amounting to £12.6 billion a year.
Customers of Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Cumberland Building Society, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander and TSB can register today, while Danske Bank customers can register from the 25th. Clydesdale Bank, first direct, Isle of Man Bank, NatWest, RBS International trading as NatWest, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Yorkshire Bank will join Paym later this year, while Nationwide customers can sign up in early 2015. Metro Bank and Ulster Bank are finalising their plans.
In early 2012, Barclays launched Pingit, a mobile application which linked a person’s mobile phone number to their current account through an app. It was initially only available to Barclays customers, but has since been rolled out to all UK current account holders.
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