As per BACS, each company should digitally sign their submission with a digital certificate. This is done to make sure an increase in level of performance, security, control and effective management information. Some of the banks that offer the direct debit service provide smartcards to the employees of organizations which use a direct debit service so as to possess these digital certificates. But in case the submission is to be done in a very high number, then smartcard based system doesn’t provide much scope.

Hardware security module popularly known as HSM is the best secure way to create digital signature. But the cost of a Hardware Security Module system can be from a minimum of thirty thousand pounds to several hundred thousand pounds thus making it unaffordable for smaller companies and bureaus. iDirectDebit Systems, one the leading Direct Debit Bureaus in the UK, uses these HSMs which enable them to process several millions of direct debits in an automated and secured manner without any manual intervention. Manual intervention is not at all required for either downloading or uploading of files to BACS. Smart cards need not be inserted into either a key or reader in the PIN whenever digital signature is required. iDirectDebit provides BACS password as a centrally operated managed service with full security and protection over the existing network.