Ecospend reports rise in value of tax payments made to HMRC via Pay by Bank

Open Finance technology platform provider Ecospend has reported that both the total value and total volume of transactions made to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) using its Pay by Bank technology increased in January compared to a year earlier.

The value of tax payments made to HMRC via Ecospend’s Pay by Bank rose 38.9% in January this year, compared to the same month a year ago, as the 31 January Self Assessment tax deadline loomed.

Through its Pay by Bank technology, more than one million customers made £3.3 billion in tax payments to HMRC since the start of 2024 to the end of January.

Ecospend, which is owned by Trustly, also revealed that the volume of these transactions is up by 16% compared to January 2023, or by more than 140,000.

In January 2023, 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 2022. The total volume of transactions was also 47% higher than in 2022.

Payments made via Ecospend’s Pay by Bank solution are sent directly from the taxpayer’s bank account, using validated HMRC details.

HMRC chose Ecospend’s solution back in 2021, marking the first time an Open Banking payment method had been embedded within a government system.

January this year also marked another first, when Ecospend became the first Open Banking provider to be accepted onto the Crown Commercial Services’ new Open Banking Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS).

At the time of the announcement, James Hickman, chief commercial officer at Ecospend, said: “The creation of this DPS will accelerate adoption of Open Banking technology by the public sector, and enable it to benefit from cost and efficiency savings, ultimately bringing more value to the UK taxpayer.”