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"Paying for bills, products and services in the UK will be made an awful lot easier in 2014 when a new mobile payments service, based around phone numbers, is launched by the Payments Council with the support of eight major financial institutions.\r\n\r\nThe new service, which the council claims will be as simple as sending a text message, will allow users to make secure payments without typing in their sort code and account number. Instead, the user\u2019s mobile phone number will be used as a proxy, replacing all of the various account details that have been stored on their device beforehand.\r\n\r\nEight major financial institutions; Barclays, Cumberland Building Society, Danske Bank, HSBC Bank plc, Lloyds Banking Group plc, Metro Bank plc, Royal Bank of Scotland plc and Santander UK plc, have confirmed that they will use the scheme when it launches in spring 2014. Together, these banks represent 90 percent of UK current accounts, bolstering its chances of being picked up and used by the wider public.\r\n\r\nThe project will move money between accounts using what the Payments Council describes as \u201Ctried and tested payment schemes\u201D. These are the Faster Payments service, which processed over 800 million online and mobile banking payments last year, as well as the LINK network, which handled 3.1 billion real-time ATM transactions in the same period.\r\n\r\nThe collaborative Payments Council project - the idea doesn\u2019t appear to have a final name just yet - is thought to be the first service to link almost every bank account in the UK with a mobile phone number. This alone should differentiate it from alternative mobile payment solutions, including the existing app offerings from major banks such as Barclays.\r\n\r\nBarclays Pingit was launched in February last year, becoming the first person-to-person service for sending money in this way. Interestingly, even people without a Barclays  account can sign up to the service provided they use it conjunction with a Barclays Pingit Wallet account.\r\n\r\nThe company's website reads: \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;Anyone can use Barclays Pingit to send or receive money. The app is free to download and use, payments are secure and it takes seconds for money to arrive. You just need a UK current account, a UK-registered mobile number and smartphone, and to be aged 16 or over.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAdrian Kamellard, Chief Executive of the Payments Council, said the new mobile payments project being built by the Council would be \u201Cfar-reaching\u201D and offer \u201Cinnovative improvements\u201D for users. \u201C[It] will offer a simple, secure way to split a bill for dinner, receive money from a friend or pay a tradesman without needing to remember or share account details,\u201D he added.\r\n\r\nShortly before the project is launched in Spring 2014, the participating financial institutions will be inviting customers to register via their online banking service or mobile app. The Payments Council says that from here, users will be able to specify what mobile phone number they want linked to their account. Clearly there will be a few more steps in the process, but that\u2019s something the Council says will be announced \u201Cin due course\u201D.\r\n\r\nFor mobile payments there will always be a tug of war between making the process as simple and frictionless as possible, and keeping personal details safe and secure. The former usually means removing the need to type in passwords, account numbers and the like, while the latter just adds them back in again.\r\n\r\nThe Payments Council conducted its own research with over 5,000 consumers and discovered similar concerns. In a press release, it promised that \u201Cas a minimum, a passcode or similar security feature will be required to authorise payments.\u201D The Council also added that banks would have the ability to remotely disable an account if they suspected misuse.\r\n\r\nOver the course of the next 12 months, the Payments Council will be working on a set of rules which will define the minimum service standards for secruity, speed and any other technical requirements.\r\n\r\nImage Credit: Junko Kimura/Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/uk/2013/01/16/payments-council-reveals-new-mobile-payments-service-to-be-launched-in-the-uk-next-year/>