This new feature lets businesses accept fast, secure payments from a customer’s bank account, and comes amid a surge in popularity for open banking, or “pay by bank” in the U.K., Revolut said in a news release Wednesday (Sept. 10).
“The payments landscape is evolving, and merchants are looking for solutions that eliminate fraud and increase optionality,” Alex Codina, general manager of merchant acquiring at Revolut, said in the release. “Our new Pay by Bank feature gives them exactly that.”
According to the release, open banking payments present a more secure solution for merchants. Because transactions need direct customer authorization from their chosen banking app, the threat of fraud and chargebacks is significantly reduced, Revolut said, thus ensuring funds are received in real-time, bolstering cash flow and customer satisfaction.
The feature will initially be offered in the UK, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, with other markets to follow, the company added.
Revolut is adding this new feature as open banking is enjoying record popularity in Great Britain, with recent data from Open Banking Limited showing that close to a third of all U.K. adults now use open banking services.
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Those figures indicated that more than 15.6 million people and businesses use services powered by open banking, the group said earlier this month.
In July, open banking services were used a record 2.04 billion times, up 3.5% from the prior month. Open banking adoption has risen steadily year over year, with total users increasing by 34% in the last year, per Open Banking Limited.
“This data shows how open banking is now part of everyday life for millions of people and businesses across the U.K., from paying taxes to shopping online. It’s fast, secure and built on trust,” Open Banking Limited CEO Henk Van Hulle said in a news release.
Meanwhile, research by PYMNTS Intelligence and Trustly found that among all consumers, just about 6.4% of respondents surveyed said they were already using pay by bank, though 40% of consumers said they would be interested in using pay by bank.
“When we asked consumers why they do not use pay by bank, a lack of awareness was the most prevalent response,” PYMNTS wrote in July. “Overall, 56% said they were not aware of pay by bank’s use cases, or how the mechanics of the payments work.”
