Mega banking migration programme "a success"

Nine out of 10 customers are happy with the way one of the biggest ever electronic banking migration projects was carried out.

Earlier this year Bacs completed a project to migrate 100,000 customers over to a new payments system, which it now says was a "resounding success". The organisation processes 90 per cent of all UK salaries and government payments, including benefit and Inland Revenue tax credits.

The company worked for three years - with UK banks and 25 approved software providers - to migrate its customers to its new IP-based payments channel, Bacstel-IP.

Research by Bacs found that nine out of 10 of its users polled described the migration as an 'easy process with no problems'. And 87 per cent said they would recommend Bacstel-IP to other organisations that needed automated payment processing.

Bacstel-IP has already processed more than two billion transactions on behalf of government organisations, consumers and UK businesses. It is the first step in a £100m technology renewal programme to re-engineer the company's systems.

Bacs managing director Michael Chambers said in a statement: "The size of the Bacstel-IP migration project was unprecedented. Member banks had to upgrade their own systems, over 40,000 organisations which submit directly to Bacs had to install new software and smartcard technology, and 60,000 organisations, which use a bureau to submit payments, had to register for passwords to access reports online.

"We are delighted the process ran to schedule and that there has been positive feedback from so many associated parties and users."