The Payments Council, the UK financial body which oversees payment mechanisms, has officially revealed its mobile money service, Paym.

Paym will enable the customers of participating banks to transfer money using only the mobile number of the recipient. Functionally, its similar to Barclays Pingit service, though when the service was first announced last October, Dave Picton, project manager at The Payments Council, told us it would  “be able to do some stuff that Pingit can’t do”.

There are currently nine banks and building societies signed up to use the service, including Barclays, Halifax, HSBC and Santander, with a further seven committed to join before the end of the year.

“Paym is a great example of industry-wide collaboration that delivers tangible benefits for customers,” said Payments Council chief exec Adrian Kamellard. “The service has the potential to link up every bank account in the country with a mobile number – millions of people will be able to use it this year and we look forward to expanding Paym even further, so everyone can benefit from this easy, secure new way to pay.”

Paym is currently undergoing final testing, before it goes live in the spring. A firm launch date is set to be announced in April.