APACS (Association for Payment Clearing Services), the UK payments association, was the trade body that gives banks, building societies and card issuers a forum where they can work together on non-competitive issues. It managed the payments that businesses and individuals in the UK need to make, covering cash, credit and debit cards, cheques, and automated payments such as direct debits, salary payments and online/phone transactions. It was the organisation responsible for the creation of a clear set of rules regarding customer liability in cases of card and cheque fraud andalso the organisation who oversaw and guided the transition to Chip and PIN.

From 6th July 2009, APACS ceased to exist and was instead turned into the UK Payments Administration Ltd. and will now act as a portal company for each of the respective sectors of UK payment services such as Bacs, CHAPS, the Cheque and Credit clearing company and others who now exist as their own individual business. Currently all these respective entities are under construction - information is available at the old APACS website - http://www.apacs.org.uk

Standards

APACS standards define both procedural and technical practice for:

• Debits (including cheques)
• Standing order mandates
• Coin packaging and banknote wrappers
• Magnetic media interchange
• Interchange data formats
• EFTPOS device communications
• Other services

APACS members

• Abbey National
• ABN AMRO
• Alliance & Leicester
• Bank of America
• Bank of England
• Bank of Ireland
• Bank of Scotland
• Barclays Bank
• Capital One
• Citigroup
• Co-operative Bank
• Deutsche Bank
• DnB NOR Bank
• Egg
• GE Capital
• HFC Bank
• HSBC
• JPMorgan
• Lloyds TSB
• MBNA
• Morgan Stanley
• NAB
• Nationwide Building Society
• National Westminster Bank
• Northern Rock
• Royal Bank of Scotland
• Royal Mail
• Standard Chartered Bank
• Wachovia

Initiatives

In 1994 APACS commissioned BACS Limited to develop and deliver a networked service known as IBDE (Inter-Bank Data Exchange) to facilitate the clearance of cheques between the member banks.

In the late 1990s — in an effort to counter the growing problem of 'skimming' which is fraudulently copying a credit card for criminal purposes — APACS pioneered the development of credit cards containing a computer chip. The early APACS work proved the viability of 'chip cards', and helped in the creation of the common EMV (Europay, Mastercard, VISA) standards for such cards.

In December 2005, the association of banks started the Faster Payments Service initiative to improve the speed of lower value consumer and business transactions, to be used in parallel with the CHAPS and BACS systems.

References

• APACS website

External links

• APACS official website
• APACS Cheque Clearing
• APACS Bankers Draft
• APACS Bank Giro Credits
• APACS information on Cheque Fraud
• Guide to Choosing and Using a Credit Card from APACS, the UK Payments Association
• Cheque and Credit Clearing Company - the organisation that manages cheque clearing in the UK
• Card Watch Card Watch is a UK banking industry initiative that aims to raise awareness of card fraud prevention. Managed by APACS, the UK Payments Association
• Payments Council website
• Retailers and Cards The Retailers and Cards website provides general help and guidance for both new and existing merchants on accepting cards for their businesses. Managed by APACS, the UK Payments Association