The UK payment market is mature and stable in many ways, but it is also undergoing great changes. The impact of having the well established Faster Payments immediate payment service (set up in May 2008) and the huge growth in mobile payments (which use the Faster Payment Service) are changing the payment landscape, see the Payment Statistics for February 2017 below.

UK Payment Statistics February 2017

Source & Copyright©2017 - UK Payments

The February statistics show that in the last 12 months:

• Single immediate payments on FPS grew 20%
• Forward dated FPS payment grew 7%
• Bulk direct credit on BACS declined by 1%
• BACS direct debits grew 5%
• Paper based payment systems declined by at least 10%+.

Changing corporate habits

SMEs in the UK are changing their payment habits by cutting out cheques wherever possible - which is not surprising, but what is surprising is that some are considering whether to send all their direct credit payments through FPS which may explain why BACS direct credit payments declined by 1% in last 12 months. 

Whilst direct debits grew 5% as large and small companies and other organisations used direct debiting to consolidate their customer/user relationships. 

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CTMfile take: There is a revolution going on in UK payments, but where will it end up?