U.K. banks are on course to launch Paym (pronounced Pay Em), a person-to-person mobile payment service that uses mobile phone numbers to identify recipients. The service eliminates the need for senders to know recipients' banking details.

Final testing of the service is taking place, and the launch date will be announced in April 2014, the U.K.'s Payments Council said in a statement. The Payments Council is responsible for ensuring the operation of payment systems such as ATM networks, check clearing, and automated clearing house transfers in the U.K.

Through the development of Paym, which previously had the working title "the Mobile Payments Scheme," the Payments Council has played a key role in fostering interoperable mobile payments in the U.K.

The final phase of the Paym project follows the completion in December 2012 of a central database enabling banks to store customers' mobile phone numbers and link them to their account details.

Nine banks and building societies will offer the Paym service from launch: Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Cumberland Building Society, Danske Bank, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander and TSB Bank. Several other banks have committed to joining Paym later in 2014, making the service available to nine out of 10 U.K. checking account holders.

Adrian Kamellard, the Payments Council’s chief executive, said the service has the potential to link up every U.K. bank account with a mobile number. "Paym is a great example of industry-wide collaboration that delivers tangible benefits for customers," he said.

In a separate move, five U.K. financial institutions with a total customer base of 18 million — HSBC, first direct, Nationwide, Santander and Metro Bank — announced in January 2014 that they will roll out Zapp mobile payments for their customers. Zapp payments generate digital tokens, which hide customer’s bank account details from merchants.

Neither Paym nor Zapp uses a mobile wallet. Customers access Paym by logging in to their bank’s mobile banking app.