A new service from leading US bank Bank of America Merrill Lynch will enable companies to send payments to their customers by using only a mobile number or email — rather than bank account details — to identify them.

The bank is partly selling the new service on cost savings — a 75 per cent saving is possible by using this method over sending out physical cheques, it says.

And payment is delivered faster this way, which should please customers (although perhaps not companies). Typical payments which might be sent in this way include rebates, refunds and claims.

The service is called Digital Disbursements and will initially be introduced in the US, although the bank expects to roll it out to other regions in the future.

The service is designed to appeal to SMEs, corporate and public sector clients of the bank.