We all tend to make a variety of payments every week, whether as employers or consumers, with certain expectations around security and delivery. Most consumers are unaware of what happens behind the scenes, but by their very nature our payment systems require a high degree of co-operation by numerous different stakeholders in order to meet expectations and function effectively.

The UK payments environment can be broadly categorised into five payment types:

    Automated payments:
            Direct Debits
            Bacs Direct Credits
            Standing Orders
    High value payments:
            CHAPS
            Faster Payments (from 2008)
    Card based instruments:
            Debit cards
            Credit card
            Charge cards
    Paper based instruments:
            Cheques and paper credits
    Cash:
            Bank notes and coins

Compared with other countries the UK payments market is categorised by high proportions of automated payments and card-based payments.
Bacs is the not-for-profit company responsible for the day-to-day operation and development of Direct Debit, Bacs Direct Credit and interbank Standing Orders (that is, the UK’s automated payment schemes).