Bacs Payment Schemes

Bacs is responsible for the schemes behind the clearing and settlement of automated payments.

Bacs has been maintaining the integrity of payment related services since 1968, with responsibility for the schemes behind the clearing and settlement of UK automated payment methods, Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit, as well as the provision of managed services for third parties, such as the Cash ISA Transfer Service, and the development, management and subsequent ownership of the Current Account Switch Service. ​Since its inception, more than 120 billion transactions have been debited or credited to British bank accounts via Bacs and, in 2016, 6.25 billion UK payments were made this way. A new record was set in September 2016, with 109.3 million transactions processed in a single day, while the value of transactions processed reached £52.3 billion on one day alone in April 2015, another record.