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 and Bacs Payment Schemes Limited reclaimed the Bacs name. 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 was VocaLink. On 2 May 2017 VocaLink was acquired by Mastercard. Vocalink provides domestic and international transaction services to banks and corporates.
Vocalink owns the infrastructure on which payment schemes operate and Bacs maintains the integrity of the current Schemes.
On 1 May 2018, operational responsibility for the Bacs and Faster Payments systems, which process a combined £6.3 trillion worth of payments annually, transferred to the New Payment System Operator (NPSO) , which was formed following the report from the Payment System Operator Delivery Group, an independently chaired body set up by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) and the Bank of England.