As you may or may not be aware, there are changes being made by the internet community with regards to accessing secure websites.
While these changes will affect all secure websites in some form by 1st January 2017, if you use BACS, either to pay your suppliers or collect money from your customers, then you may need to take action before 1st June 2016 and we would advise taking action earlier than this to ensure continued access to the BACS website.
The changes being made by BACS will generally only affect your ability to download reports from the BACS website, and will NOT normally stop you from sending payments by BACS via Drummond Laurie or any other BACS bureau.
Basically, although the current methods of accessing secure websites such as BACS are very secure, they are quite dated. As with everything else, technology moves on, and there have been other, even more secure, methods developed to combat increasingly sophisticated internet threats.
With these new methods being available, some of the older methods are due to be phased out as of the 1st of January 2017. As BACS don’t have control over the whole internet, they have decided to apply these changes on the 1st of June 2016 so that they can guarantee that everyone will be able to access their site at all times.
In order for you to continue to access the BACS website and download reports after the 1st of June, you will need to make sure that your PC is running an operating system and web browser capable of implementing these new methods.
If you are using Windows then based on advice from Microsoft 
via BACS you will need to ensure that you are running either Windows 7 or 8 (or server 2008 R2 or above if you are using a server) as the operating system, and an up to date version of your web browser (Internet explorer v11, Chrome v26, Firefox v27 or Safari v7). Whilst some older versions of the browsers mentioned can be made to work, it’s always advisable to upgrade to the most recent version if you can.
The following documents may be useful :
http://www.bacs.co.uk/BACS/BUSINESSES/FAQ/Pages/SHA-2.aspx
http://www.bacs.co.uk/Bacs/DocumentLibrary/SHA-2_browser_table.pdf
Please note that you may not currently be collecting BACS reports from their website and therefore consider that these changes do not apply to you. As BACS will not be the only secure website affected by these changes, then you will still need to review your systems as otherwise you could lose access to things like online banking. As a BACS user we would strongly advise that you start collecting reports on a regular basis if you use BACS but don’t already do so.
Finally, as every IT system is unique, then for more detailed advice (especially if you are running an operating system other than windows) we would suggest that you contact whoever deals with your IT support for assistance in making the changes required, especially if you are running older versions of windows, as new hardware may be required to move to Windows 7 or 8. If you need any further help or have any queries regarding this, in the first instance please contact Ross Nicol on 01324 441271 or email ross.nicol@drummondlaurie.co.uk.