Bam Nuttall has signed up to use a new digital payment platform designed as an alternative to Project Bank Accounts (PBAs) \u2013 its first use on a public project.<\/p>\n
The contractor has adopted Digital Parallel Payment Accounts (DiPPAs) on two contracts with the Environment Agency (EA) in the North East and East of England.<\/p>\n
Developed by tech company Saible, DiPPAs are digital-first systems aimed at overcoming perceived shortfalls with PBAs.<\/p>\n
Bam Nuttall client director Andy Judson said the platform could provide \u201ca smarter, more secure future for project payments that strengthens supplier confidence and aligns with modern public sector procurement goals\u201d.<\/p>\n
A PBA is a ringfenced bank account from which payments are made directly and simultaneously to a lead contractor and pre-approved subcontractors.<\/p>\n
However, the system is typically restricted to payments between the first two tiers of the supply chain.<\/p>\n
DiPPAs aim to solve that limitation by expanding access to all firms involved in construction projects.<\/p>\n
Each supply chain member creates an account in the platform and can log in using facial recognition.<\/p>\n
Instead of relying on a single party \u2013 such as the main contractor or client \u2013 to approve payments to the entire chain, DiPPAs introduce a mutual authorisation step at each level.<\/p>\n
Each contractor is only responsible for verifying payments to its own subcontractors.<\/p>\n
This decentralised structure reduces bottlenecks and ensures payments are only delayed if the direct employer raises an issue, Saible chief executive Jarvey Moss claimed.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cOne advantage of DiPPAs is that each level of the supply chain is responsible for signing off payment to its direct subcontractors \u2013 meaning all levels of payment are more likely to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n
By contrast, in many PBAs, the client or main contractor acts as trustee and controls all outgoing payments, which can lead to delays or gaps if errors arise, he said.<\/p>\n
Saible recommends that the client act as sole trustee on DiPPAs, but in the EA trials, the contractor and client are joint trustees.<\/p>\n
This means that if the contractor becomes insolvent, the account remains operational and cannot be frozen or redirected to administrators, Moss said.<\/p>\n
Saible\u2019s model includes a standardised legal trust agreement, which Moss said makes DiPPAs easier to administer. He said the agreements sometimes vary on PBAs.<\/p>\n
For clients unwilling or unable to act as trustee, Saible has introduced a third-party option: Construction Trustee Ltd.<\/p>\n
The company was created in September specifically to serve as an independent trustee and is led by Mark Wakeford, former managing director of contractor Stepnell and current chair of the National Federation of Builders.<\/p>\n
Wakeford said the trustee will not hold the funds, but instead \u201cmake sure that the bank and Saible are operating in accordance with the trust agreement\u201d.<\/p>\n
The first private project to adopt a DiPPA was a small residential scheme in Chester, completed in October.<\/p>\n
Saible is now onboarding two further private-sector projects and expects a \u201csignificant number of projects\u201d to use the system next year, according to Moss.<\/p>\n
Construction News<\/em> asked the EA to name the projects using Saible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bam Nuttall has signed up to use a new digital payment platform designed as an alternative to Project Bank Accounts (PBAs) \u2013 its first use on a public project. The contractor has adopted Digital Parallel Payment Accounts (DiPPAs) on two contracts with the Environment Agency (EA) in the North East and East of England. Developed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90643,"featured_media":487181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[552,528,57171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-532956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial","category-bam-construct","category-supply-chain","issue-online-news"],"yoast_head":"\n