Ecospend secures GBP 3 mln Open Banking contract with HMRC

In September 2020 HMRC put a GBP 3 million contract out to tender to overhaul the group’s bank transfer process for customer payments, with the opportunity for more Open Banking integration in the future. Ecospend said its solution would let taxpayers initiate an account-to-account payment without the need to manually set up payments—meaning no more reference numbers—which should save time and avoid mistakes.

The contract win also means that come tax season in 2022, millions of sole traders and anyone filling in a self-assessment tax return could be prompted to use Open Banking payments for the very first time. Ecospend is a 50-person company offering Open Banking data (AISP) and payments (PISP) and has operated in stealth until now.