A2A payments made to HMRC using Ecospend’s ‘Pay by Bank’ top £2.3bn

UK-based Open Banking payment provider Ecospend has revealed that more than £2.3 billion in Self Assessment payments were made to HMRC using its ‘Pay by Bank’ technology, ahead of the 2023 deadline – an increase of 64% on last year.

The total volume of transactions was 47% higher than in 2022, with 869,000 payments having been made to HMRC using Ecospend’s payments solution.

In the final two days before the 31 January 2023 cut-off to file Self Assessment tax returns to HMRC, customers paid almost £600 million in tax via Pay by Bank powered by Ecospend.

Ecospend’s James Hickman

According to the latest figures from Ecospend, the total value of transactions using its ‘Pay by Bank’ technology prior to this year’s Self Assessment tax deadline was 64% higher than in 2022.

James Hickman, chief commercial officer at Ecospend, said: “The rapid adoption our Open Banking payment solution by HMRC’s customers is hard evidence that account-to-account payments are the best way to meet consumers’ expectations for a fast and simple payment journey.

“We hope that the success of our work with HMRC is a clear demonstration of the benefits that Open Banking can provide to the public sector, businesses and consumers alike and look forward to working with other government departments, as well as businesses from a range of industries, to support them with our innovative payment solution.”

Ecospend’s Open Banking contract with HMRC, which it was awarded in February 2021, now sees it process payments across 43 tax regimes, including Self Assessment, VAT, Corporation Tax and PAYE.

Since then, global payments platform Trustly has acquired Ecospend, following approval from the Financial Conduct Authority.