The window is closing for businesses yet to accommodate higher security requirements. Bacs Payment Schemes Limited has been warning businesses of the change for the past 16 months, and the deadline is now just one week away.

The company behind Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit, used to pay 90 per cent of the UK's workforce, will switch off older internet protocols on 19 September. Any business that has not made the appropriate changes to software and IT will find themselves locked out of Bacs from that date.

The security changes are 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. 

If an organisation has not adopted compatible internal IT and appropriate software, and cannot access Bacs to submit payment files, they should contact their software solution provider for help immediately.

More information is available from www.bacs.co.uk/sha-2