Plaid Launches Embedded Bank Payments for SaaS Platforms

Plaid has announced a solution that will enable vertical software-as-a-service platforms to integrate embedded bank payments directly into their products, enabling their customers to collect bill payments and to disburse funds for vendor payments.

The company’s new Transfer for Platforms will provide onboarding, risk and payments in one place, Dana Weinstein, product manager, Plaid Transfers, wrote in a Monday (Oct. 13) blog post. A waitlist for this offering is now available.

The solution will enable platforms to onboard customers in minutes, move money across multiple rails, reduce failed payments and gain full visibility and control across customers, transactions and returns, according to the post.

Because it will enable the use of ACH, Same-Day ACH, RTP® network and FedNow® Service, Transfer for Platforms will be able to lower costs by as much as 40% compared to cards, the post said.

Plaid Transfer already powers billions in bank payments for other types of companies, and now Transfer for Platforms will extend that capability to platforms serving small and medium-sized businesses, per the post.

“Embedded payments turn a SaaS product into a more complete solution, creating opportunities to monetize beyond subscriptions,” Weinstein wrote in the post. “When payments are integrated natively into workflows, customers get a smoother experience, platforms unlock new revenue streams, and the product becomes stickier.”

One early user of Transfer for Platforms, home services industry platform AdminiPay, found it was able to reduce onboarding from three weeks to 30 minutes, cut processing costs by up to 75% by shifting 20% of transactions to ACH, and lower support requests by improving transparency with real-time payment status, according to the post.

The PYMNTS Intelligence and Worldpay collaboration “Platform Power: The Growing Importance of Embedded Finance to SMB Success” found that 90% of small and medium-sized businesses said that embedded finance tools integrated into their management platforms were essential for operations.

Another report, the PYMNTS Intelligence and Trustly collaboration “What Consumers Need for Pay by Bank to Catch On,” found that among the consumers who already use pay by bank, 41% would consider using the payment method beyond traditional retail. Many users point to the ease of use of pay by bank.

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