New report reveals a record 7.3 billion automated payments made in 2014
More automated payments were made in the UK in 2014 than ever before, according to a new report published by Payments UK, the trade association for the growing payments industry.
UK Automated Payments 2015 reveals over 7.3 billion, CHAPS, Bacs Direct Debits and Direct Credits and Faster Payments were made in 2014 – an increase of 3.6% from 2013. Taken together, these payments accounted for 38% of all non-cash payments in the UK, with a total value of £5,571bn – up 7% from the previous year.
Faster Payments – which processes virtually every inter-bank mobile and internet banking payment made in the UK – saw the strongest growth, with 1.1 billion payments processed in 2014 – an increase of 14%. More than 771 million of these were one-off payments and these are expected to increase by two and a half times by 2024, driven in large part by increasing use of mobile banking.
In 2014 internet banking was the most popular form of remote banking – used by 33.3 million people, but mobile banking has grown significantly, overtaking telephone banking for the first time in 2014, with 15 million people using the service.
Direct Debits remain the most popular method of automated payment by volume, with 3.7 billion sent in 2014 – an increase of 4%. Seven out of ten regular household bills were paid by Direct Debit last year, with utility payments making up 33% of the total volume for household commitments. Bacs Direct Credits were primarily used by businesses to pay individuals – 85% of these 2.15 billion payments made in 2014 were for this purpose.
The CHAPS payment scheme continues to account for the overwhelming share of the value of payments processed in the UK. CHAPS payments worth £68tn were made last year – an average of £269bn per day, accounting for 91% of the total value of payments in the UK in 2014. The volume of CHAPS payments rose by 4.4% to an all-time high of 36.5 million in 2014. CHAPS payments are forecast to be over 50 million by 2024.
