U.K. Payments Council Tabs Experian for New Database

The U.K. Payments Council announced it has selected credit information group Experian (Dublin, Ireland) to create and maintain a new industry database of corporate customers' payment information. The council said the central biller database will improve the accuracy of payments made using online and telephone banking and is scheduled to go live in late 2012.

Experian is tasked to collect, verify and standardize information from banks on how their corporate customers receive payments. The full database is intended to be used by banks to allow online and telephone banking customers to find accurate information when paying their bills; for example via simplified drop-down menus. The service is also intended to provide more accurate billing information for bank customers to use.

The central biller database is an initiative from the Payments Council's recently published National Payments Plan, which is a plan to enhance existing payment services through innovation.

The Payments Council is a conglomerate of U.K. financial institutions that sets strategy and best practices for British payment mechanisms.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio