Barclays strikes mobile payments deal with Bottomline
The agreement will provide the service to customers of Pingit and Paym, which collectively have five million UK customers.
The agreement will provide the service to customers of Pingit and Paym, which collectively have five million UK customers.
Barclays has agreed a deal with payments and invoice automation software provider Bottomline Technologies which gives UK companies a platform with which to send payments instantly to customers using their mobile phone number.
The new service will be offered to customers of Barclay’s Pingit service, which the bank first launched in 2012, and the Paym service, which is similar to Pingit but run by the UK’s other high street banks and building societies.
Pingit for corporates followed last year, but so far take-up of the service has been relatively low as companies needed to implement it within their payments systems, which could often prove a complex and costly process.
Pingit and Paym combined have around 5m UK customers and businesses using either will be able to make instant payments to customers directly without needing their bank account details
Richard Ransom, product marketing manager, Bottomline Technologies, said that the company expects the expanded service resulting from the tie-up with Barclays to appeal to a wide range of businesses. “This fully automated solution can be especially attractive to businesses such as those in the utility and insurance sectors that still rely on high volumes of costly cheque generation,” he said.
“As well as offering a lower-cost alternative to existing payment processes, the convenience and immediacy of Pingit and Paym can significantly improve customer engagement and satisfaction levels for users. For example, in the case of Pingit, all recipients will be notified of their payment via a short message service (SMS) or app alert.”