How will Microsoft’s withdrawal of IE11 impact Bacs Payments Services?

Microsoft have announced that they are withdrawing their support for Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) earlier than originally planned, and it may have an impact on your Bacs payment services. Continue reading to discover how it may affect Bacs payment services, and how to avoid any problems.

What is happening?

Microsoft had originally announced, in 2021, that they would stop supporting IE11 in 2025, but that date has now been brought forward to June 15th 2022. The tech giant will instead be reverting its focus entirely on Microsoft Edge, moving away from the classic internet browser, Internet Explorer.

After this date, the IE11 desktop application may stop working, depending on your version of Windows. As a result, this may affect your access to Bacs Payment System, potentially causing untold chaos to thousands of companies.

What should you do then?

In order to avoid any payment delays or Bacs service interruptions when the service loses Microsoft’s support in June, you should start preparing for the change.

For anyone that uses Bacs payment software services, you should contact your provider now to discuss the next steps and any issues you may come across.

For users that use payment services websites, switching over to Microsoft Edge (or any other internet browser, like Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari) is your best option to avoid any problems.

If you use PKI (a smartcard signing solution) to access the payment services website, you’ll need to use IE11 compatibility mode in the latest version of Edge to log on and collect your reports.

If you log on with ASM, you need to download a different browser when the phased launch of the new payment services website completes in June 2022.

Are your system requirements up to date?

If you use Windows on your computer, you will need to ensure it is up to date in order to continue using Bacs payment services.

If your PC currently runs Windows 10 or Window 11, you will be able to use your signing solution against IE11 compatibility mode in Microsoft Edge. Should you be running anything lower than Windows 10 (Windows 7, 8, 8.1) your operating system is not currently supported so contact your IT department or you should look to update the system yourself.

How Interbacs can solve your payment issues

Here at Interbacs, we have taken care of this impact for all of our software customers so that their embedded functionality of access payment services website to retrieve reports won’t be disrupted. If you’re a subscriber of our Bacs Approved Bureau Services - which 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, you will have received communications that Interbacs takes care of everything so you won’t have to worry about Microsoft’s lack of support for IE11 from beyond June. You can rest assured that we will be updating our solutions to ensure seamless service deliveries ensuring no disruption.

Also, if you’re looking for information on the benefits of having a SUN, you should check out our previous blog posts on this topic!

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 at Interbacs, contact us today on 0161 667 0758, or email us at sales@interbacs.com.