GOV.UK Pay to introduce Open Banking

Government Digital Service (GDS) is seeking a payment service provider for the GOV.UK Pay platform for processing credit and debit card payments and introducing open banking payments for public services.

A market notice states that GDS is preparing to spend up to £49.2 million under a three-year contract to begin in July of this year, with options for two one-year extensions.

GOV.UK Pay (Pay) is a digital payments platform, developed and run by GDS and was designed to provide an easier way for the public to make payments for services. Open banking allows for the sharing of financial data between banks and third party service providers through APIs.

Pay currently supports more than 1,000 public sector services across central government, local authority, police forces and NHS teams to take payments for their services digitally. The platform has processed more than 94 million transactions since September 2016, with a total value of £6 billion. Services using Pay include HM Passport Office’s Apply for a passport.

While the current contract handles only 17 percent of payments currently going through GOV.UK Pay it is used by more than 70 percent of all public services currently taking a payment and is the only option available which enables teams to start taking payments within one working day.

Expanding Open Banking across industries

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) recently called on the government to expand the concept of Open Banking to other industries.

TBI wants to see three new Smart Data schemes: Open Finance, Open Energy, Open Property. It defines Smart Data as the “regulated, secure sharing of customer data or non-personalised data sets with authorised private-sector third parties.”

The move will, it said, potentially unlock £27 billion in economic value.