Zapp has partnered with five UK financial services firms – HSBC, First Direct, Nationwide, Santander and Metro Bank – to roll out its mobile payments service, which is set to launch in autumn of this year.

Integrated into existing banking apps, Zapp enables customers to make secure real-time payments to merchants from within the app using a digital token – meaning they don’t need to input their bank account details while shopping.

The financial institutions Zapp has partnered with represent a combined customer base of 18m, and more than a third of all UK bank accounts.

Making an impact
Mobile payments is already a crowded market, and no single offering has yet made a significant impact, but according to CMO Justin Basini, Zapps strength lies in its close integration with the banks themselves.

“From a consumer point of view, theres nothing to download,” Basini told Mobile Marketing. “It doesnt require the user to download a different third-party app, learn any new passwords or user names or register for anything new. And because its integrated with the banks, you can see your account balance before you make a payment.”

Zapps approach also means improved security, Basini says, as only the financial institutions have access to the users account details – and all payments will be covered by similar protections to those for debit cards.

That integration is at least partly a result of Zapps position as a subsidiary of Vocalink, the national payments operator joint owned by 18 banks and building societies in the UK. But, Basini points out, “Zapp was set up quite separately – we have a separate team, management, and office – and as with any new business, weve had to persuade banks and other financial companies one-by-one to launch something new.”