Barclays has announced plans to roll its bPay prepaid wearable payments offering into its Pingit mobile payments app, “giving 3.6m users access to simple ways to pay on the go”.

The move is “in line with the ambition to build out Pingit as Barclays’ mobile payments brand, providing an all-in-one app for users to manage their spending on-the-go,” the bank says.

“By moving onto the Pingit platform, current bPay users will soon be able to make instant payments to friends and family within the Pingit app, as well as maintaining access to a range of wearable devices to spend directly from their account.”

“All current bPay users, including those with partner products featuring an embedded bPay chip, will be contacted and provided instructions for a free upgrade to Pingit wearables,” Barclays adds.

From May 2019, Pingit users will also be able to link a debit card to their account and to create ‘jars’ where they can set aside money for specific uses such as a holiday fund or for providing pocket money to a child.

Users will also be able to use the app “to assign their wearables to specific jars in real-time to gain more control over their or their family’s spending,” the bank says.

While Pingit has 3.6 million users, bPay users are only “in the high tens of thousands,” Barclays has told Bloomberg.

Barclays’ Rob Morgan provided attendees at last week’s Wearable Payment Summit, held during MWC19 Barcelona, with an in-depth presentation on the history and evolution of the bank’s bPay offering. The slides from the summit, including Morgan’s presentation, are available to download from the NFC World Knowledge Centre here.

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