The UK’s first bank built exclusively for tablet and smartphone users has turned to popular payment method Direct Debit to boost its offering – challenger brand Atom bank has joined Pay.UK-owned Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (Bacs), which processes nearly six-and-a-half billion transactions a year worth £4.9 trillion.
App-based Atom is the fourth payment service provider (PSP) in under 12 months to sign up to Bacs, reinforcing the continued relevance of established payment options Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit.
Paul Horlock, chief executive of Pay.UK, said:
“We are committed to enabling a vibrant UK economy, and a payments industry that delivers for all of its end-users, whether that’s individuals or businesses. Key to achieving that is embracing innovation and driving diversification – Atom bank embodies the former and, with its membership of Bacs, helps us to achieve the latter. I’m really pleased to have them on board.”
Launched in April 2016, Durham-based Atom bank is committed to building a customer-driven bank, designed to meet continually evolving customer needs. The bank offers Fixed Saver accounts, residential mortgages, and secured business lending for SMEs – already, Atom bank has lent in excess of £2 billion to small businesses and homeowners across the UK and are known as the UK’s fastest growing mortgage lender.
Mark Mullen, CEO of Atom bank, said:
“We are delighted to have joined Bacs and this is a critical milestone in our Atom journey. This will give our customers more control over facilitating payments and allow us to expand our growing portfolio in the future. Alongside our participation in the Faster Payments Scheme, being able to settle our own payments with Bacs means that both our customers and future commercial partners have access to this critical infrastructure through Atom’s next generation architecture. We’re very excited at the prospect and at what we can do with this capability in the future.”