Compliance email alert FAQs
You are registered as a primary security contact (PSC) and so will be notified of important operational information regarding your service user number (SUN). Our records show there are one or more outstanding Bacs advices that need your attention, which can be downloaded from the payment services website (PSW).
The Automated Direct Debit Amendment and Cancellation Service (ADDACS) is a messaging service by which payment service providers (PSPs) advise service users such as yourselves of amendments to your customers’ account details. The advices are available to you in the form of reports and you are required to action these advices within 3 working days of the report being available to ensure that any future payment collections to your customers are submitted correctly. ADDACS advices that you receive may relate to changes to your customers account details that do not relate to the Current Account Switch Service.
Advice of Wrong Account for Credit Service (AWACS) is a messaging service by which payment service providers (PSPs) advise service users such as yourself of amendments to your customers’ account details. The advices are available to you in the form of reports and you are required to action these advices within 3 working days of the report being available to ensure that any future payments to your customer are submitted correctly. AWACS advices that you receive may relate to changes to your customers account details that do not relate to the Current Account Switch service.
If you are having trouble locating your un-actioned Bacs advices on the PSW, please contact the Bacs Service Desk. Their contact details can be found at www.bacs.co.uk/contact
Thanks for acting on these advices. They have been highlighted to you because the closed account details have been used more than once by your Service User Number. It is worth checking the update has worked with a sample of the advices we have notified you of to ensure your process is capturing all advices.
Further investigation may be required, however common causes of Bacs advices being missed are:
- Are you, or the relevant contact configured to access the reports via PSW? If not, they will not be visible to you.
- Is there an effective process in place at your organisation?
- Are there controls in place to verify that the task is being carried out as expected?
- Are all reports being collected (this should be checked)?
To help you pick up advices as soon as they're available, you can set up PSW email notifications to let you know of any new Bacs report ready to download. To find out how, visit www.bacs.co.uk/bacstelipuserguide
It is important that you as a primary security contact (PSC) receive notifications from Bacs to let you know of operational updates, such as outstanding Bacs advices.
If you would not like to receive these notifications, click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email and complete the unsubscribe form. This will prevent you from receiving future notifications. This information will also be passed onto your sponsor who may get in touch with you to discuss your role as a primary security contact.
If you no longer wish to be a PSC, please contact your sponsor who will remove you as a PSC and, if required, find a replacement PSC for your SUN(s).
If you're unsure who your sponsor is, please get in touch with the Bacs Service Desk who will be able to let you know who your sponsor is and what their contact details are. The Bacs Service Desk's contact details can be found at www.bacs.co.uk/contact
You must not rely on your customer to provide you with their new account details directly, nor do you need their direct 'authority' to make changes from an AWACS advice. These advices come from their new payment service provider (PSP), and by signing the Current Account Switch Agreement, the recipient has given their authority to their new PSP to arrange for all payments to be transferred.
Receiving an advice is authority for the Service User to amend your customer's payment records and no other communication with the payer or payee is required. These changes must be applied to the payment records no later than 3 working days from the date the advice is available.
In the unlikely event that the details quoted in the AWACS advice are incorrect and a payment is made which is not recoverable, liability will rest with the PSP submitting the advice.
Do not assume your bureau will collect and action your Bacs messaging reports as not all bureaux provide this service. Check your agreement with your bureau.
If your bureau does not have access to the appropriate records, it is unlikely they would be able to make these updates. Your bureau might be able to collect the relevant ADDACS and AWACS reports on your behalf and provide them to you, however. You should liaise with your bureau to understand and agree who should collect and action your advices.
Remember, it is your responsibility as the service user to comply with the relevant Bacs rules.
You have been contacted in your capacity as a Primary Security Contact for this SUN (which is non-compliant) and we are seeking your support to take the necessary steps for your organisation to become compliant.
Even if you do not action the advices directly, you should understand that you are responsible for compliance with Scheme rules and for ensuring that the advices are acted upon.
You may consider adding the person who is responsible for actioning ADDACS and AWACS advices as a PSC for your Service User Number. Please contact your sponsor to arrange this.
Regardless of your internal policies and authorisation practices, your organisation must implement a process that ensures compliance with the relevant Bacs Scheme rules. This includes being able to action Bacs advices within three working days of them being available to update your payment records.
To view all your advices of redirected payments, you will need to log on to the payment services website. Details on how to do this can be found at www.bacs.co.uk/collectingreports