How Bacs looks in 2022

We’re sure everyone is familiar with Bacs and how the system works. It’s become a reliable system for the payments industry with more than 4.5 billion payments processed every year. However, in 2022, Bacs is changing and only getting bigger and better. Continue reading to find out more about how Bacs will look throughout the remainder of the year.

What did Bacs achieve in 2021?

During the summer of 2021, Bacs hit a lifetime total of 150 billion transactions; a number so big many can’t even comprehend it. It is thought that during the Earth’s existence, a total of 108 billion people have walked the planet. That puts into perspective just how many Bacs payments have been made during the last 50 years alone.

Bacs is the key to so many payments that happen in the background, including Direct Debit payments. But what is planned for the remainder of 2022?

What is changing for Bacs in 2022?

While the service that users interact with daily on Bacs Direct Credit and Direct Debit has remained the same, with the service as good as ever, some things do look a little different.

For instance, the website that is accessed to download reports and make administrative updates has moved to Pay.UK branding and colours. That is the most obvious initial change, reflecting Pay.UK’s role in operating Bacs services, along with Faster Payments and cheques.

This represented a natural next step and a continuation in the evolution of Bacs, which follows on from the rollout of Confirmation of Payee. This initiative was designed to reduce certain types of fraud, while Request to Pay has been developed to smooth the relationship between companies and their customers.

As we move through 2022, further advancements are being made in the future of retail payments in the UK. While the continued smooth operation of critical elements of the payments industry - Bacs Payment System, Faster Payment System, and Image Clearing System - remain a responsibility, there is a determination from Pay.UK to play an active role in the expansion of consumer payment options.

Technological changes have already been put in place that will affect the Bacs payment system. Microsoft announced their decision to withdraw support for Internet Explorer 11, a key aspect of the Bacs payment system, from 15 June 2022. This has forced everyone in the payments industry to rethink their approach and to prepare for use on separate platforms.

Bacs is now integral to our lives

During the earliest years of the automated payments industry, there were just a few thousand transactions being processed. Since then, this way of payment has become an integral part of both company and customer lives. To the point where almost everyone in the UK has come into contact with Direct Debit, Bacs Direct Credit, or both.

When you consider Direct Debit’s broad footprint, together with the proportion of the UK workforce regularly being paid by Bacs Direct Credit (around 90% is estimated) and other payment services, it is no surprise that billions of payments are now made yearly.

Interbacs - a Bacs Approved Bureau

Interbacs’ Bacs Approved Bureau Services are designed for companies that already have a Service User Number (SUN) but would rather outsource the administrative hassle and expense of processing payment instructions. As your chosen Bacs Bureau, Interbacs will take care of everything. We can reduce your internal processing, saving you time and money.

The advantage of using a Direct Debit Bureau such as ours is that payments are cleared directly into your bank account. Our Bacs Bureau Service makes it much easier for big businesses to manage payments efficiently. You’ll no longer need a large payment processing team. A single individual and our software can handle all of the stresses for you.

If you’d like to know more about the services we offer, please contact us on 0161 667 0758 or email us at sales@interbacs.com.