9 of the UK’s leading banks are joining forces to release a new Person-to-Person mobile payment service called Paym (pronounced Pay Em).

Paym is the result of the December 2012 completion of a central database linking account holder mobile numbers o their respective bank accounts.Currentlty final tests on the service are being done with a projected April 2014 release.

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The 9 banks that form the new joint venture are: Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Cumberland Building Society, Danske Bank, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander and TSB Bank. More banks are said to join Paym throughout 2014, resulting in 90% of UK account holders being able to place a P2P transfer through their banks.

“Paym is a great example of industry-wide collaboration that delivers tangible benefits for customers,” said Adrian Kamellard, the Payments Council’s chief executive.

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Paym will not require a separate application and works in conjunction with mobile banking applications and web services.

Similarly, HSBC, first direct, Nationwide, Santander, and Metro Bank have also joined forces tyo introduce Zapp mobile payments in January 2014.

Just recently, in the US, Capital One also began offering P2P transfers by joining a jopint venture with Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

SOURCE