Barclays becomes the first UK high street bank to enable customers to make payments from current accounts held with other banks in their Barclays app

New feature will help customers who have current accounts with other high street banks to do even more of their everyday banking in one place. The feature uses the industry-approved API technology, powered by Open Banking.

„In a UK high street banking first, Barclays customers can now securely make payments from current accounts held with other banks from within the Barclays app, helping them to take care of all their money management in one place.”, according to the press release.

The new feature builds on the existing ability to view current, savings and credit card accounts held with other UK banks in the Barclays app*.

Initially, it has been rolled out to customers who have a linked current account with NatWest, Nationwide or Bank of Scotland. It will shortly be rolled out to other providers including Santander, Lloyds, Halifax and RBS.

Caroline Ambrose, Director of Open Banking at Barclays commented: “Day-to-day life is busy enough without juggling multiple banking apps to stay on top of your finances. That’s why we’re working to make our customers’ lives easier by putting everything in one place and adding features that help them manage their money in a secure and straightforward way.

“Payments is the next step in our journey towards giving our customers even more control over their money, and easier ways to do their everyday banking tasks.”

The new feature has been designed with customer security at its heart. It uses the industry-approved Open Banking API technology to ensure a secure process for the customer.

To use the feature, customers first need to add the personal or business current account they hold with another bank into their Barclays app. This can be done simply and securely within their app and can be switched off instantly, at any time, if they change their mind.

Once the account has been brought into their app, customers can view their balance and transactions, and securely make payments from the account.

In the coming weeks, Barclays will be adding more functionality to make the payments journey quicker and more straightforward, including the ability to save new payment contacts through the Barclays app, simply and securely, without needing to re-enter details.

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Linking accounts

To link other accounts, customers simply select their other bank from within the Barclays app, at which point they will be securely redirected to their other bank’s app or online banking page to choose which accounts, if any, they would like to connect. More information, and a step by step guide, can be found at www.barclays.co.uk/ways-to-bank/account-aggregation/

The payments feature works using sterling current accounts held with other providers, that a customer has linked into the app, and is covered by the Barclays Mobile Banking app’s terms.

*Available current accounts

Currently, customers can bring the following accounts from other banks into their Barclays app:

Current accounts:

(Unless otherwise specified, customers can bring in personal current accounts (joint & sole) and Business current accounts (simple mandate))

Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, RBS, NatWest, Nationwide, Santander, HSBC (Personal only), First Direct, M&S Bank

Available savings accounts and credit cards:

Note. The savings accounts and credit cards that can be brought securely through to the Barclays app are determined by the bank the customer holds the product with – and therefore vary by bank – however Barclays offers the ability for savings/credit cards to be linked from the following providers:

Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, RBS, NatWest, Nationwide, Santander, HSBC (Personal only), First Direct, M&S Bank