The contract which ran to 2010 has been extended for a further five years to 2015.

Bacs is responsible for the Schemes behind the clearing and settlement of automated payments in the UK including Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit. VocaLink services and maintains the infrastructure network on behalf of Bacs, processing more than 5.5 billion automated payments a year on behalf of the Scheme.

Speaking about the contract extension, Michael Chambers, managing director of Bacs, said: "We are pleased to confirm that we have extended the contract with VocaLink to provide the infrastructure for the processing of Bacs payments. VocaLink has consistently provided a service that exceeded our expectations and has the experience and scale to meet our future processing needs.''

Marion King, chief executive of VocaLink, said: "We are delighted that Bacs has extended the contract for VocaLink to process its transactions. Bacs provides a valuable service to the UK payments industry which we are proud to be able to support. The Bacs contract is a very important part of our core business and we look forward to continuing the relationship and to process growing volumes of the UK's automated payments."

The VocaLink Payment Platform processes over 90 million transactions on a peak day. Over 5.5 billion Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit payments are processed on behalf of Bacs per year; with over 90% of UK salaries and 70% of regular household bills paid via Bacs Direct Credit and Direct Debit respectively.