Mobile Payments

The Payments Council’s mobile payments project has taken the next step towards making payments using just a mobile phone number possible for everyone.

The Payments Council has started work on a central database that links mobile phone numbers to account details. This will open the possibility of making and receiving almost-instantaneous payments using your mobile without needing to know account details - regardless of who you bank with.

The database will be available to UK banks and building societies before the end of 2012 as a platform for them to build their own competitive service. Customers will register for the service through their own bank, with no need to share their details with a third party.

The final service will be safe, secure and simple to use – offering an easy way to pay a friend back for dinner, or pay a window cleaner or other tradesman. You can view a short video explaining how the service will work, here:

Using the database, any UK bank that is connected to LINK or Faster Payments will be able to launch a mobile payment service for their customers that will make or receive payments seamlessly, even with customers of other banks.

The decision to appoint VocaLink to build the central database was announced at a press conference on 21 February 2012. Adrian Kamellard, the Chief Executive of the Payments Council, was joined by the Payments Council’s Head of Innovation, Richard Martin, and Chris Dunne from VocaLink to explain the latest developments.

You can view the presentations, in full, here:

 

The work to develop account-to-account mobile payments is going ahead in the context of a wider review of the landscape in mobile payment initiatives, including developments in contactless payments (also known as Near Field Communication, or NFC) and banking ‘apps’.

The Payments Council has committed to identifying a wider strategy for mobile payments by the end of 2012.