Ecospend, a Trustly Company and the UK leader in open banking payments, has retained the UK’s most significant open banking contract to date with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
Ecospend will continue to offer its Open Banking solutions to enhance parts of HMRC’s payment processes and deliver innovative data solutions for taxpayers. Such services provide a range of benefits from decreasing errors and reducing fraud to improving usability for UK taxpayers while reducing costs for HMRC itself.
The original contract was won by Ecospend in 2021 (prior to its acquisition by Trustly in 2022) and by volume has become the single biggest use case for open banking payments in the UK with £30bn of tax payments processed since launch.
As part of the re-awarded contract, Ecospend will continue to provide its account-to-account payment services which allow HMRC to process payments across over forty tax regimes including Self-Assessment, PAYE, Corporation Tax and VAT. As Open Banking payments require minimal manual data entry and are sent directly from a taxpayer’s bank account using pre-filled HMRC account details, the solution significantly improves payment reconciliation. This means that in addition to cost savings, faster-speeds, and less human error, it is proven to significantly reduce the need for suspense accounts for incoming payments.
The extension of the contract will allow both HMRC and Ecospend, A Trustly Company, to continue to drive the open banking agenda in the UK, bringing value for money and efficiencies to taxpayers.
Johan Tjärnberg, Group CEO of Trustly, comments: “We’re thrilled that we have been awarded a new contract to provide Open Banking services to HMRC. We believe this is one of the most innovative relationships to embed financial technology within a Government. Our technology will allow HMRC to continue to offer a simple, fast, and secure payment experience.”
James Hickman, CCO at Ecospend, A Trustly Company, said: “We are excited to continue our excellent working relationship with HMRC and build on the success of the last three years. Our collaboration to date is the industry standard for Open Banking and HMRC has led the industry in proving its value at scale. Further adoption of Open Banking across Government will help speed up and simplify payments, prevent fraud, and reduce costs to the public sector.”