Bankers'' Almanac launches sortingcodes.co.uk

A new online financial service, sortingcodes.co.uk from Reed Business Information, publishers of The Bankers'' Almanac, aims to speed up and simplify electronic payments by providing access to over 13,600 sorting codes for UK banks and other financial institutions. The searchable
directory at sortingcodes.co.uk also lists 8,100 CHAPS Euro BIC codes used in mainland Europe.

sortingcodes.co.uk is aimed at payroll managers, finance departments, accountants, pension professionals, banks and financial institutions, making it quick and easy to set up direct debits or standing orders, check BACS queries, pay pensions and salaries and process suppliers'' bills.

The data is updated monthly and an intuitive search mechanism allows users to double check up-to-date bank sort codes, address details, telephone numbers or research new payments information.

Commenting on the launch of the site, Kerry Hewn, Publishing Director of The Bankers'' Almanac said:

We are committed to generating new services based on our traditional directory publications by offering searchable data via the web. Sortingcodes.co.uk will make life much easier for anyone involved in processing payments, in any industry. It is the natural evolution of our
very successful publication, UK Clearings Directory.

The service is charged at an annual rate of 99 for a single user and each subsequent user costs 25. There is no software to download and no set up costs.