Barclays Bank to merge bPay and Pingit

Barclays Bank has planned to integrate its bPay app with another of its own app Pingit, to add strength to its mobile payment product.

Pingit does have about 3.6 million users, but 5 year old bPay, has a user base which goes into “high tens of thousands,” a Barclays spokeswoman is reported to have said. In a strategic move, these two have been brought together so that Barclays gets the teeth to fight strong market rivals like Apple and Goldman Sachs.

In keeping with the idea of a forward looking product that should come from this merger, and convenience for customers, Barclays will introduce wearable payment devices to Pingit in May. In the new avatar, Pingit will also boast of some new features. So, users will be able to segment their account into “jars”, enabling them to plan their expenditures and investments for specific uses, such as a holiday or providing pocket money to a child. This will also be followed by the option of linking a debit card to their account. This linkage will give them another payment mode, adding to the convenience factor.

Given the acute competition in the mobile payments arena, Barclays needs to add as much bling to Pingit to make it as attractive as possible. There will be many more other features – no fees, mobile enabled, and the ability to pay directly from the messaging app, and even payments to friends and family across over 40 countries.

The existing users of bPay, and that includes those with partner products featuring an embedded bPay chip, will be brought into the Pingit fold, and there will be outreach communications for instructions for a free upgrade to Pingit wearables.