Well, we were talking in the office earlier this week and someone said “so how did all this start then – direct debits?” So nobody knew, and to be honest you try Google-ing anything about the history of direct debits and all you get is stuff about payment histories, which is important for the user but didn’t get us any nearer to our answer.

Then some one found this obscure US Treasury and Finance website that had the whole history on it. So now we know that it was just under 40 years ago – 1970, only two years after the establishment of Bacs, that the first direct debits came into use in the UK banking system.

I think I can say we all felt much better for knowing that!! Oh and we’re saving up for the big party at Bacs in 2010!

We don’t know who the first payment was from and to but what we do know is that nowadays, nearly six billion direct debit payments are made every year, which is about 90 per person for every man woman and child in the UK.

They don’t all pass through our direct debit processing bureau at First Capital Cashflow, but with all the sophisticated platforms, systems and controls we have in place capacity will never be one of our issues – or our customers! It’s a market we lead the world in and talking to providers across Europe you soon get a feel for just how advanced the technology is that we use.

To be honest, we are starting to see many of the traditional providers of direct debit bureau services in the UK lag back as specialists like our company make continuing investments in our systems and the security that surrounds them. But this has always been the case where the big banks have had a virtual monopoly in a particular service until strong smaller niche players come along and take the concept to levels that the banks just don’t aspire to – particularly while they’ve got other things on their minds!

For more information on how First Capital Cashflow can help your business, please contact us.