How can I electronically transfer money to another account using Bank Transfer (BACS)

Question

I'm working on a project where we collect payments from users using credit/debit/PayPal payments.

The service is taking payments from users on behalf of a 3rd party organisation. Once we take the payment, minus fees, we want to transfer the amount to the organisations bank account.

For now, what we can do is pay the organisation using Online Banking BACS bank transfer.

But I would like to know if there is a way to do this automatically using an API.

If we need to somehow register the 3rd parties bank account details before making transfers, this is fine. We just want to automate the whole process, since at the moment the transfer is a manual step.

Are there any gateways or APIs I can use for this? In the UK?

Answer 1

As this is still un-answered I'll throw my hat into the ring.

For the benefit of non-UK users, the UK has a central clearing system called Bacs, which is run by the major banks in the country. However, companies can also makes submissions directly to that clearing system, by using Bacs Software.

There are a number of companies that sell on-premise and online services/APIs that allow you to send money directly via Bacs (and collect Direct Debits).

DISCLAIMER: I currently work for a software company (Bottomline Technologies) which sells a Bacs API - I won't mention the product name and to see alternative companies you can simply Google for 'bacs software api'

Hope this helps