Paym ( ) is a

mobile payment A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of ...

system provided by

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

s and

building societies A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. Building societies exist in the United Kingdo ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Recipients are identified by their

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

number instead of bank details such as

sort code Sort codes are the domestic bank codes used to route money transfers between financial institutions in the United Kingdom, and in the Republic of Ireland. They are six-digit hierarchical numerical addresses that specify clearing banks, clearing s ...

and account number. The service was developed by the

Payments Council The Payments Council was an organisation of financial institutions in the United Kingdom, which set strategy for UK payment mechanisms from 2007 until 2015. History In his 2003 Pre-Budget Report, then-Chancellor Gordon Brown announced that the O ...

and participating banks and building societies, with

Bank of Scotland The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial and clearing bank based in Scotland and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, following the Bank of Scotland's implosion in 2008. The bank was established by th ...

, Barclays, Cumberland Building Society, Danske Bank, Halifax, HSBC,

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the " Big Four" clearing banks. Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain, and has an exte ...

Santander Santander may refer to: Places * Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain * Santander Department, a department of Colombia * Santander State, former state of Colombia * Santander de Quilichao, a m ...

and

TSB Banking A trustee savings bank is a type of financial institution. * In the United Kingdom: ** Trustee Savings Bank, a bank in the United Kingdom that merged with Lloyds Bank in 1995 to form Lloyds TSB until 2013 ** Lloyds TSB, the name used by ...

involved from the launch in April 2014. More than nine out of ten current accounts in the UK support Paym after

Clydesdale Bank Clydesdale Bank ( gd, Banca Dhail Chluaidh) is a trading name used by Clydesdale Bank plc for its retail banking operations in Scotland. In June 2018, it was announced that Clydesdale Bank's holding company CYBG would acquire Virgin Money for ...

, First Direct,

Isle of Man Bank The Isle of Man Bank is a bank in the British Crown dependency of the Isle of Man, providing retail, private and business banking services to the local population. Incorporated in 1865, it has operated as a trading name of RBS International ...

, NatWest, RBS International,

The Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS; gd, Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a major retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) and Ulster Ba ...

, and Yorkshire Bank joined later in 2014.

Nationwide Building Society Nationwide Building Society is a British mutual organisation, mutual financial institution, the seventh largest co-operative banking, cooperative financial institution and the largest building society in the world with over 16 million members. ...

joined Paym in June 2015, with Metro Bank and

Tesco Bank Tesco Bank is a British retail bank which was formed in July 1997 (as Tesco ''Personal Finance''), and which has been wholly owned by Tesco plc since 2008. The bank was formed as part of a 50:50 joint venture between The Royal Bank of Scotland a ...

planning to join later in 2015. The underlying network technology is provided by VocaLink. The name "Paym" is stylised in the logo with a slight gap between "Pay" and "m", and is a play on words over "Pay 'em", a contraction of "Pay them", and "Pay M" alluding to "Pay Mobile". In 2018 Paym had around 4 million users. The recipient must register in order to link their mobile phone number with their bank account. Those wishing to make a payment to a registered phone number can use their existing

mobile banking Mobile banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. Unlike the related internet banking it uses ...

online banking Online banking, also known as internet banking, web banking or home banking, is an electronic payment system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial ins ...

service. Payments made through Paym take place at the same speeds as existing Faster Payments or LINK payment mechanisms. The sender enters the recipient's phone number (or selects their number in their own phone's address book). The sender's bank then retrieves the account number and sort code associated with that phone number, and then sends the money using the Faster Payments Service. The sender is shown the recipient's name (in order to confirm that they are paying the right person) but not their account details. The Paym service will be coming to a close on 7 March 2023.

References

External links

Paym Mobile Payments
Banking in the United Kingdom Banking technology Mobile payments {{Finance-stub

See also

References

External links