The Yorkshire business which millions would lose out without

It may purposely keep itself quiet as a Yorkshire-based business, but VocaLink provides services which, if tampered with, could see the UK go into meltdown. Deputy Editor Ian Briggs reports.

SPIKED railings, anti-terrorism barriers, blacked out windows and a distinct lack of self-publicity.

They’re features that you don’t expect to encounter when visiting a company on a leafy business park on the outskirts of Harrogate.

But hi-tech security devices and a lack of branding are essential for VocaLink to carry out its vital work.

As well as the sturdy external defences, another aspect that takes you by surprise when you visit VocaLink’s offices is the magnitude of the company’s role in the UK economy.

As Peter Myers, director of commercial development, payments and international banking at Yorkshire Bank, who also sits on VocaLink’s board, points out: “VocaLink is measured as a critical piece of the national infrastructure.”

The company, which employs 300 people in Harrogate, is the market leader in electronic payments and processing ‘hole-in-the-wall’ cash point transactions. Many of the major banks have a stake in the company.

Around 98% of ATMs in the UK are connected to the company’s Link system – VocaLink processes around 60 million card transactions per week to banks – and the company runs outsourced ATMs on behalf of banks, such as in newsagents for HSBC.

Card payments, direct debits and cash withdrawals all pass through its systems as well as ATM mobile phone top ups. The Link system was created 21 years ago and Link moved to Harrogate in 1991.     

VocaLink was created last year when Voca and Link merged. Voca’s expertise is in electronic payments and more than 90% of companies pay their employees through its BACS system.

The company pioneered electronic payments more than 40 years ago and its automated payment platform processes more than 80 million transactions per day.

VocaLink employs further staff at its other offices in Dunstable, Rickmansworth and London.

There are only a handful of staff at the company’s Harrogate base, which has two satellite offices on the business park, with access to its computer mainframe (which has a back-up system at another site near Leeds) which controls the ATM Link system through an iris recognition system.

Ian Gausden, VocaLink’s operations director, said: “If the BACS system doesn’t work you don’t get paid. For the UK economy, we’re a critical part.”

The company, which deals mainly with Link in Harrogate, has received threats in the post from those wishing to bring the economy to its knees but Mr Gausden says it has done its best to keep physical attacks to a minimum.

The company is aiming to grow its presence overseas following its success in the UK.

“Banks are becoming ever more competitive, ever more cost conscious,” said Mr Gausden. “They’re seeking to keep their cost base as low as possible. VocaLink is in a good position to do that via a central switch.

“We need to seek more volume. That’s quite tricky for us in the UK as we have more than 90% of bank transfers and 98% of ATM transfers.”

VocaLink is keen to expand through the introduction of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), a regulatory change introduced in in January which has created a single payments market across 31 European countries.

The system is intended to make it easier for individuals and companies to make payments electronically and allows financial transactions between banks in different countries to be handled as if they were between banks in the same country.

Mr Gausden said: “It’s an exciting area for us because it takes us international for the first time. What we think is going to happen because of the drive to save money is that smaller players won’t be able to develop SEPA solutions. They’ll look to outsource it. So we’ve got to keep offering more added value services.”

VocaLink has recently won a contract to process the majority of Swedish payments in the UK.

Mr Gausden, who has spent his career in the payments industry, said the company had a “five-year vision” to grow into the leading payments company in Europe, doubling the size of the existing business.

But like much of the company’s intricacies, he is keeping tight-lipped on its present financial performance.

However, VocaLink presently processes between eight billion and nine billion transactions annually but is aiming to process 10 billion. Vocalink also aims to take advantage of the Faster Payments Service, an initiative which will dramatically increase the speed of payments.

Mr Gausden adds that VocaLink is a good barometer for the UK economy in terms of people’s spending habits.

But just don’t expect him to shout it from the rooftops.