Why it matters
Every time you share your sort code and account number, you create a persistent payment path. DigiCheques removes that path entirely. This is not fraud detection. It is fraud prevention by design.
The problem
A sort code and account number were designed as routing identifiers for the banking system — internal references for moving money between institutions. They were never intended to be exchanged between individuals as a condition of receiving a payment. But that is exactly what happens millions of times a day in the UK.
Every time you pay your plumber, your music teacher, or a friend you are settling up with, you share your bank details. They sit in a WhatsApp thread, an email, a text message. They persist long after the transaction is complete. They can be intercepted, stored, and misused.
DigiCheques does not make bank details safer. It removes them from the transaction entirely. The recipient's account details are never seen by the sender. The sender's details are never seen by the recipient.
Authorised push payment fraud — where someone is deceived into sending money to a fraudster's account — typically begins with a compromised payment instruction. A fake invoice with substituted account details. A WhatsApp message impersonating a family member. A fraudulent email appearing to come from a trusted supplier. In every case, the starting point is a bank detail that existed somewhere it should not have.
The structural difference
A DigiCheque is a payment token with three properties that no existing payment method shares simultaneously.
Named
A DigiCheque is created for a specific recipient. It cannot be claimed by anyone else. If it is intercepted, forwarded, or misdirected, it is worthless to the person who receives it.
Single-use
Once claimed, a DigiCheque is void. There is no reusable payment path created, no persistent account detail stored anywhere in the transaction chain.
No bank details exchanged
The sender never sees the recipient's account details. The recipient never sees the sender's. The money moves directly between their banks via Faster Payments.
No platform dependency
The recipient needs only a UK bank account. No app, no registration, no platform relationship. This is financial inclusion by design — not an afterthought.
Pay-by-link solutions require the recipient to have a platform account. Bank transfer requires sharing account details. DigiCheques requires neither. It is the digital successor to the cheque — an instrument designed from the outset to transfer value without exposing the recipient's banking relationship.
The regulatory context
The Payment Systems Regulator and the FCA have made reducing APP fraud a regulatory priority. PSR PS23/3 introduced mandatory reimbursement requirements for APP fraud victims from October 2023. The regulatory direction of travel is clear: payment service providers are increasingly accountable for fraud that occurs on their rails.
DigiCheques is designed to operate at the frontier of that regulatory expectation. The single-use named token architecture is not a feature — it is the product. Every DigiCheque that is created, sent, and claimed is a transaction that could not have been intercepted, redirected, or reused. That is a structural contribution to the integrity of UK retail payments, not merely a consumer benefit.
DigiCheques is pursuing FCA authorisation as a payment institution. We are building in compliance with PS25/12 safeguarding requirements and the Consumer Duty from the outset.
The cheque book on your phone. No bank details. No trail. No risk.
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