Pay.UK hosted a webinar on Monday 4 April at 14:30 – 15:30 GMT where we were joined by other industry experts and discussed what impact Request to Pay could have on UK bill payments for organisations and consumers, especially in today’s rapidly changing landscape.

Request to Pay solutions come in different shapes and sizes and Pay.UK’s design is unique in a number of key ways.  Tune in to understand the differences, the rationale behind it, and why we think it’s required now more than ever.

Speakers

• Kate Frankish, Chief Business Development Officer, Pay.UK
• Simon Brooks, Faster Payments Service Line Manager and RtP SME
• David Cox, Payments Lead, Virgin Media
• Tony Craddock, Director General, Payments Association
• Tina Harrison, Professor, University of Edinburgh

Panelists discussed: 

• How end-users could have greater choice in how they pay
• The benefits from a large biller perspective
• How Request to Pay can add value to the wider payments ecosystem

The webinar recording can be viewed here.

Pay.UK is pleased to invite banks to our series of virtual vendor presentations on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 October between 10am and 4pm. 

For banks who are considering offering a Confirmation of Payee service to their customers, this is a chance to hear from technical solution providers who can support the development their service.

There will be a series of nine presentations from the Confirmation of Payee vendor community, demonstrating their solutions. Companies presenting will include Banfico, Bottomline, DotConnect,  Exelatech, Form 3, OB Connect, Mastercard, Streammind  and SurePay.

Attendees are able to join as many presentations as they like and each will be followed by the opportunity for Q&A.

If you have any questions about this event or the Confirmation of Payee service please get in touch at cop@wearepay.uk.

We look forward to welcoming you.

The webinar considered long term strategic trends shaping the payments market out to 2030 based on Pay.UK’s research, the key drivers of immediate change, and what impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had.

Pay.UK understands that people and businesses everywhere want payment services that are safe and secure, easy to use, and flexible to meet the challenges of a changing world.

Discussions included:

• The nine payment trends identified by Pay.UK that are set to shape the payments market of the future
• How Covid-19 will impact key drivers – atomisation, internalisation and virtualisation
• How you can join the conversation about the future of payments by participating in Pay.UK’s first industry challenge.

Kate Frankish, Director of Strategy and NPA Product Owner at Pay.UK, led the discussion and was joined by panellists:

• Eddie Keal – Banking & Financial Markets Industry Leader at IBM and member of Pay.UK's Participant Advisory Council
• Arunan Tharmarajah – Head of European Banking at Transferwise.

Chaired by Jo Kenrick, Independent Chair of the Current Account Switch Service, the strategy day this year was undertaken virtually, using Zoom, over two dates.

Event two focused on the refreshed Current Account Switch Service vision and strategy and both events included breakout discussion sessions. Enabling the gathering of feedback and input from participants and external stakeholders.

If you have any questions about this event, please email us at CASS@wearepay.uk.

Chaired by Jo Kenrick, Independent Chair of the Current Account Switch Service, the strategy day this year was undertaken virtually, using Zoom, over two dates.

Event one shared some key highlights since the last strategy day and focused on the operation and the impact of Covid-19.

If you have any questions about this event, please email us at CASS@wearepay.uk.

Maha El Dimachki, Chief Payments Officer; Simon Brooks, Real Time Payments Service Line Manager; and Mark Jones, Request to Pay Project Manager, from Pay.UK, talked about the Request to Pay Framework. They also discussed the benefits for businesses, organisations and consumers, and how you can get involved.

They were joined by panellists:

• James McMorrow, Director, NBFI Product (Bank of America)
• James Stanley, Collections Campaign Strategy Manager (Anglian Water)
• Sian Williams, Director of External Policy and Innovation (Toynbee Hall)
• Ben Williams, Director of Product Management and Overlay Services (Mastercard)
• Peter Cornforth, Director (Answer Pay).

Kate Frankish, Director of Standards and Strategy, and Toby Sheldon, Director of Communications from Pay.UK, discussed how user behaviour has changed during lockdown and how that might influence the future of retail payments.

They were joined by panellists:

• Anna Bradley – Chair of Pay.UK’s End User Advisory Council
• Simon Eacott – Head of Payments Innovation and Business Development at RBS and member of Pay.UK’s Participant Advisory Council
• Scott Johnson – Managing Director of the construction company Chas Smith Group and member of Pay.UK’s End User Advisory Council.

The discussion included:

• The trends and patterns regarding retail payment volumes since the Covid-19 lockdown began
• The challenges that paying from home can create, and the tools available to help and protect consumers, businesses and organisations
• What further steps the retail payment industry can take to support consumers, businesses and organisations as social distancing continues
• How lockdown and social distancing might influence the future of retail payment.

Paul Horlock and our panel – Matthew Hunt, COO, Kate Frankish, Director of Standards and Strategy at Pay.UK and guests Rebecca Clements, Director of Payments at UK Finance and Gregor Dobbie, CEO of Vocalink – discussed the challenges payment service providers are currently facing, and how the industry is supporting them to respond.

The discussion included:

• The impact of Covid-19 on the retail payments industry
• The steps the industry has taken to safeguard end users – in particular consumer education about online services, and awareness around Covid-19 fraud
• How the industry has worked together to support the UK Government.

Affiliates is Pay.UK’s expert user forum where corporates, indirect participants, FinTechs and others discuss changes to Pay.UK’s existing services and contribute new ideas and feedback to help shape the future.

The session included:

• UK Finance on ensuring financial resilience in the event of widespread Covid-19 infection
• UK’s Head of Commercial on plans for proposition development in 2020
• UK’s Operations Directorate on the conclusion of the Request to Pay pilot and the coming launch
• An update from Pay.UK’s Innovation team following the Affiliates workshop in December
• The usual updates from Pay.UK’s service lines and further discussion on the on-going evolution of the group.