A number of major UK banks have united for a new payment system that lets users transfer cash via their mobiles using just their mobile number and a password.
The Paym service is initially available for use by 30 million people in the UK, and negates the need for account numbers and sort codes to make payments.
Customers of the Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander, TSB and others can use Paym at launch.
First Direct, Yorkshire and Clydesdale Bank users will be able to join later this year.
By the end of last week, more than 300,000 people had already registered to be able to use the service.
The Payments Council (PC), which developed the system, said it can be used by “friends and family” to settle IOUs between each other.
The organisation said UK consumers rack up an average of £255.81 annually on informal debt, totalling £12.6bn.
It claims the system, which is similar to Barclays’ two-year-old Pingit mobile money transfer service, is ideal for sharing restaurant bills with friends or putting money towards household bills.
However, both payer and payee must have their phone numbers registered to utilise the service.
Payments are password-protected but it is unclear to what extent the system is impervious to hackers.
Watch this video explaining how Paym works below (source: Daily Telegraph):
http://www.paym.co.uk/