Experian Payments UK Gateway has achieved approval under the Faster Payments Approved Software Scheme, operated by Bacs. It will enable users to fully automate their Faster Payments and participate in the Faster Payments Direct Corporate Access (DCA) service sponsored by Barclays.

Originally developed to enable payments originators to process Bacs payments, Experian Payments UK Gateway has been extended, tested and approved for use with Smartcards and Hardware Security Modules (HSM) in both attended and unattended modes. It supports Faster Payments DCA via Secure-IP, the secure channel for corporates to initiate Faster Payments.

Martin Ruda, TALL Group of Companies managing director, said, "The advent of Faster Payments changes the payments landscape significantly. This functionality gives businesses the ability to manage urgent, critical payments much more easily and cost effectively, and enhance customer/ supplier service if they choose to do so."

Customers using cheque, CHAPS, Faster Payments, and Bacs payments, including Direct Credits and Direct Debits (for collections), will be able to access all these payment mechanisms from within the TALL Group of Companies' Integrated Payments Solution. This provides a core File Manager to convert and route payments and collections instructions to the appropriate payment service.