What is a Bacs bureau?

The Bacs Approved Bureaux Scheme (BABS) is for computer bureaux that submit transactions through the Bacs service on behalf of third party organisations.

Bacs inspectors review the appropriateness of the bureaux to ensure they meet the standards set by the scheme.

Over half of the organisations using the Bacs service make their Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit payment submissions through our approved bureaux rather than submitting directly to Bacs.

Organisations choose to use a Bacs approved bureau (BAB) for a number of reasons:

• they may only make a small number of Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit transactions each month
• they might be unable to fulfil all of the criteria to be able to make direct submissions themselves to Bacs
• they may be a newly established organisation
• they might be an SME with a relatively low turnover.

But, whatever the reason, with approximately 600 BABs throughout the UK accessibility to Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit services is greater than ever before.