Mobile Payment Service Paym Launches in the UK
Paym, a newly-launched payment service in the UK, enables bank customers to send money using just a mobile phone number and has attracted nearly 400,000 people since registration opened three weeks ago.
Nine UK banks and building societies have adopted the service so far, with customers of Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Cumberland Building Society, Danske Bank, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander and TSB able to register to use the service.
Other banks and building societies committed to joining Paym later this year include Clydesdale Bank, First Direct, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Ulster Bank and Yorkshire Bank. The UK’s biggest building society, Nationwide, has said that it intends to join in 2015.
Customers can use the Paym service to send up to £250 per day – with some banks and building societies offering a higher daily limit – using a mobile number, without requiring a sort code or account number. Non-smartphone users can register to receive payments, although a smart phone app is required to send money.
Research by Consumer Intelligence found that one in four bank customers said they would use the service, with the figure rising to 39% among those aged 18 to 34. However, 47% of the 2,000 current account holders asked, said they would not use Paym as they were concerned about security and money going missing.
Stuart Gregory, of online payments company Skrill, said the launch marked an exciting time for the UK payments industry, finally bringing increased convenience to making bank transfers on the go.
“We all want faster and easier ways to send and receive money on the move, and mobile phone banking transactions by British customers doubling in a single year – according to new figures from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) – confirms that using our mobile phones to pay for things and manage our money is finally taking off,” he added.
“It’s great that the UK Payments Council is launching this, with the support of so many banks, but until the service is available to customers of all banks in 2015, and with its UK-only limitation, we cannot be sure that this will be the tipping point for mobile payments.”