NatWest, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, has launched a
new personal payment system which will allow consumers to send and
receive payments electronically, including by mobile phone.
NatWest's service, called Fastpay, will handle payments of between
£5 and £100, at a charge of 20p to send a transaction.
Despite the move, analysts have criticised banks for failing to
develop a single method for electronic micro-payments.
Although micro-payment systems already exist, including those from
online bank Egg and the US-based Paypal, Fastpay is the first such
system in the UK from a high street bank allowing mobile phone
payments.
After registering with the service customers will be able to make a
payment to a company or individual by sending details of the
payment to the recipient, who receives it in their own Fastpay
account.
Duncan Brown, consulting director at analysts Ovum, said although
it was good to see a high street bank offering micro payments the
lack of standards could limit its adoption.
"Fastpay suffers from the same problems as the rest of these
services - the recipient has to register with the service and they
are not compatible with each other. Consumers may need many
micro-payment accounts.
"There needs to be agreement between banks as there is with credit
and debit cards if such payment methods are to be widely accepted,"
he said.