Bacs corporate information
What is Bacs?
Selected as a 2007 Business Superbrand, Bacs is a not-for-profit, membership based industry body, owned by 15 of the leading banks and building societies in the UK and Europe. For 40 years, Bacs has been at the heart of the payments industry. It is responsible for the schemes behind the clearing and settlement of automated payments in the UK and maintaining the integrity of payment related services. More than 5.5 billion payments a year are made by Bacs' principal schemes, Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit, equating to approximately £3.7 trillion in 2007. At the end of November 2007, the number of transactions processed in one day through Bacs increased by 8.4% resulting in a new daily processing peak of more than 90.3 million items.
What is VocaLink?
VocaLink Limited, is the provider of payment services to banks and corporates. It runs, services and maintains the infrastructure network that processes automated payments on behalf of Bacs. For more information go to: http://www.vocalink.com/
What is the relationship between Bacs and VocaLink?
The history of the two companies is closely intertwined. However, in short, VocaLink owns the infrastructure on which payment schemes operate and Bacs maintains the integrity of the current schemes.
To provide historical context: In 1968, the electronic transfer of funds between banks was introduced by the Inter-Bank Computer Bureau. In 1971 this organisation was renamed Bacs (Bankers Automated Clearing Services); later shortened to Bacs Limited in 1985.
Throughout the eighties and nineties, Bacs invested heavily in new technologies that took full advantage of advances in processing power and software engineering. In 2002, this culminated in a step change in the delivery of Bacs services with the initial introduction of Bacstel-IP – a system which allows users to submit and monitor payments via the internet.
This development was quickly followed by a governance review and an analysis of the payment market which split Bacs into two separate organisations - Bacs Ltd and Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (Bacs). On 12 October 2004, Bacs Ltd became Voca Limited. Today, both organisations work closely together. Subsequently, on 2 July 2007, Voca merged with LINK - the operator of the UK cash machine (ATM) network. The resulting company - VocaLink - provides domestic and international transaction services to banks and corporates.
What is Direct Debit?
A Direct Debit is an instruction from a customer to their bank or building society authorising an organisation to collect varying financial amounts from their account. This can be used to ensure regular, safe and efficient payments of anything from household bills to charitable donations. Over 2.8 billion Direct Debit payments are processed by Bacs a year and 75 % of adults now have at least one Direct Debit committment. For further information on how to set up a Direct Debit to help keep accounts in order, please contact your bank or building society.
What is Bacs Direct Credit?
Bacs Direct Credit is mainly used for paying wages and salaries - in fact over 90% of the UK workforce is paid via Bacs Direct Credit. In total, Bacs Direct Credit is used for paying four million wages every week and nearly 25 million salaries a month.
Media spokespeople
Bacs can put forward expert media spokespeople to comment on a range of topical financial issues. For more information contact the Bacs press office.