BACS LIMITED
- 2 THOMAS MORE SQUARE
E1W 1YN LONDON
Phone: 0870 165 0018
E-mail: Send messagewww.bacs.co.uk/bacs/corporate
Short profile:
Bacs is a not for profit, membership based industry body, owned by 16 of the leading banks and building societies in the UK and Europe.
The overall volume of payments processed by Bacs remained static in 2008 due to the migration of some payments to the Faster Payment Service.
Bacs provides two principal electronic payment schemes; Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit. These products have increased convenience and provided peace of mind for tens of millions of consumers through the delivery of safe and efficient payments. Bacs also manages the approved software and approved bureau services for direct corporate access to the Faster Payments processing infrastructure, employing expertise and elements from its current solution set.
Detailed description:
Throughout the eighties and nineties, Bacs invested heavily in new technologies that took full advantage of advances in processing power and software engineering. In 2002, this culminated in a step change in the delivery of Bacs services with the initial introduction of Bacstel-IP – a system which allows users to submit and monitor payments via the internet.
This development was quickly followed by a governance review and an analysis of the payment market which split Bacs into two separate organisations - Bacs Ltd and Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (Bacs). On 12 October 2004, Bacs Ltd became Voca Limited. Today, both organisations work closely together. Subsequently, on 2 July 2007, Voca merged with LINK - the operator of the UK cash machine (ATM) network. The resulting company - VocaLink - provides domestic and international transaction services to banks and corporates.
To provide historical context: In 1968, the electronic transfer of funds between banks was introduced by the Inter-Bank Computer Bureau. In 1971 this organisation was renamed Bacs (Bankers Automated Clearing Services); later shortened to Bacs Limited in 1985.
Faster payments is a new payment system which has been developed by the UK banking industry, it enables electronic payments, typically initiated via the internet or phone to be processed in hours. The new service runs alongside the existing Bacs service.
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