1000 small businesses risk being locked out of Bacs after 13 June

08 June 2016

Hundreds of businesses are at risk of missing vital payments to staff and suppliers next week. Data from Bacs shows that around 1000 smaller businesses may be locked out of the payment system after failing to make important upgrades.

Security changes - called SHA-256- SSL - are being driven by the global internet community, which will adopt these improved security measures at the end of this year. At that stage, all organisations needing to communicate securely with users across the internet and via extranets will be impacted.

Bacs is making the change before then, on 13 June, to avoid any last minute issues with payments when the existing SHA-1 certificates are switched off.

If you are a small business, Bacs is urging you to check now whether or not you have the right software and operating system in place to make important payments, like payroll as well as to settle invoices. If you work for a small business, ask your finance team if they’ve made these changes.

Any business yet to make the necessary changes should immediately contact their software solutions provider who will be able to help them in becoming compatible with the new security measures.