Today in Digital Banking: Blockchain Disrupts Cross-Border Payments, Cashfree Adds Banking as a Service and PSPs Welcome Open Banking

Today in digital banking, Cashfree unveils Banking-as-a-Service for FinTechs. Plus, PSPs have started to embrace open banking APIs and blockchain is set to take over the cross-border payment space.

New Report: PSPs Embracing Open Banking APIs for Speed, Compliance and Insights

Mounting demands for seamless experiences and omnichannel transaction management are pushing payment service providers to explore new solutions to keep money moving and get people and businesses paid, especially open banking.

Open Banking: The User’s Guide For PSPs, a PYMNTS and TrueLayer collaboration, notes, “PSPs can benefit from open banking … by utilizing it as a payment method. PSPs can then enable merchant clients to accept payments from customers via instant bank transfer. Such open banking applications are wide: PSPs can offer open banking as a plugin for mobile apps, platforms and marketplaces, and they can deliver an open banking API that allows these same companies to tailor payments options to their customers’ particular needs.”

Stellar: Blockchain Is the Next Big Disruptor of the Cross-Border Payments Category

Banks can use blockchain to realize cost efficiencies and boost financial inclusion — and maybe even revolutionize finance, Jason Chlipala, COO at Stellar Development Foundation, told PYMNTS.

Payments have seen waves of tech-led changes in recent decades, where physical money has given way to electronic money to some degree and the card networks have underpinned the development of a safe, efficient payment system, he said. Safety means controlling and securing the rails and the databases themselves, said Chlipala.

Cashfree Debuts Banking-as-a-Service Offering for FinTechs

Payments company Cashfree recently launched a new banking-as-a-service API to help speed up banking integrations, a press release says.

The service will let accounts offer features for account opening, linking, deposits, check balance and interest earning to their customers, partners and vendors, according to the announcement. It will also allow for 100 percent cash-free bank accounts.

Cashfree will also add support for savings accounts, virtual accounts and other payments instruments through the use of a product that’s running as a pilot with FinTech startups.