Barclays and BlackBerry today announced that they are bringing the immediacy, reliability and ‎security of BBM to Pingit money transfers in the U.K., according to a press release. 

Pingit, Barclays' mobile payment app, enables instant money transfers using phone numbers, and now BBM. As of today, BBM users can initiate mobile payment transfers to each other in seconds using the Pingit application. Pingit currently has over 2.9 million registered users, and more than 68,000 businesses have signed up to use the service.

Individuals don't have to be Barclays customers to use Pingit, and more than 2 billion poounds ($2.85 billion) has been transferred via the app to date.

“BBM delivers real convenience for our customers sending or receiving money through the Pingit app. Customers want to be able to make payments quickly, easily and safely, and by creating the option for funds to be transferred from within BBM conversations, we're allowing Pingit to make the payments process simpler for even more people,” said Darren Foulds, managing director for Pingit at Barclays.

The BBM-enabled Pingit app is now available as a free download for Android and iOS devices.