For the first time, a non-bank payment service provider has joined Bacs Payment Schemes Limited, as Orwell Group’s ipagoo secures direct access to systemically important payment options Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit for its customers.

ipagoo is a multi-country and cross-currency current account service for individuals and corporates, designed with the end customer at its heart – it enables its clients to open and operate current accounts in other countries in Europe with ease and simplicity.

Carlos Sanchez, ipagoo’s chief executive officer, said: “ We’re very excited to blaze this new trail, becoming the first ever non-bank to join Bacs in its lengthy history. It is fundamentally important for us to be able to offer the best possible service to our clients, so being a direct participant to Bacs enables that and also it places us on a level playing field with the largest UK banks.”

The brand is the latest in a raft of new participants joining Bacs over the last 18 months, providing even wider access to the nation’s most prolific payment system; last year, Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit payments totalled 6.35 billion in number, a new record, with a high of 111.7 million transactions processed in a single day.

Bacs’ general manager, Andy Hollingdale, said: “ipagoo is an exciting brand playing to a market of informed, technologically advanced customers – and we’re pleased Direct Debit, the original digital payment, is still relevant to them. Even though Bacs has been around for half a century, we’re still growing, processing more transactions and setting new records every year, a clear indication of how we’re successfully meeting the evolving 21^st century needs.”