Paym, the UK service that uses just a mobile number to enable money transfers,  registered its one millionth registration at end-July – although the second 500,000 took longer than the first to arrive.

The service was developed by the Payments Council and is offered to the users of nine leading banks and building societies in the UK.

The council talked up its achievement in reaching the one million figure since its launch at the end of April.

Yet less than three weeks after Paym’s launch, Nigel King, MPS programme director for the Payments Council, announced at an industry conference the 500,000 mark had been passed.

The P2P money transfer market has become competitive with a number of services targeting users.

The council also said that since launch just over £6.5 million had been sent using the service, which is designed for sending relatively small sums to friends or family.

There was no breakout of active users, as opposed to registered ones.

Its aim is to have Paym available to nine out of ten current account holders in the UK by the end of 2014.

Customers of Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Cumberland Building Society, Danske Bank, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander and TSB can already use the service should they wish.

At least another nine financial institutions are coming online by early 2015.