Trustly and Episode Six Partner on US Pay-by-Bank Adoption

Trustly, a global provider of pay-by-bank solutions, and Episode Six, which offers enterprise-grade card issuing and ledger infrastructure, have announced a partnership aimed at accelerating the adoption of pay by bank in the United States.

The collaboration is designed to enable U.S. retail merchants to accept pay by bank through their existing card networks, potentially reducing complexity and the need for operational overhauls.

Under the agreement, Episode Six will provide the issuer processing technology for Trustly’s “card rail plugin integration,” according to a Tuesday (Sept. 9) press release.

This system is intended to allow merchants to leverage the payment infrastructure they currently use, addressing a barrier to pay-by-bank adoption in the U.S., where its domestic growth has lagged despite significant global traction. The companies anticipate this approach will lower costs for merchants, speed up settlement processes and help minimize fraud.

According to the press release, Trustly selected Episode Six for its “modern, cloud-native and resilient platform,” citing its flexibility to support future payment applications such as pay by bank via card rails.

“Merchants don’t want complexity. They want faster, safer payments that simply work,” Brian Muse-McKenney, chief revenue officer at Episode Six, commented in the release. He noted that the partnership illustrates how “new payment experiences can scale on top of existing systems,” offering “efficiency and speed without tradeoffs.”

Craig McDonald, chief business officer at Trustly, added: “Using the same card rails retailers rely on today means faster integration, quicker time to market and lower costs by building on existing operations.”

The two companies said their collaboration could establish a model for how alternative payments can integrate seamlessly through existing infrastructure, potentially influencing innovation across the broader FinTech ecosystem. Trustly, established in 2008, says it connects more than 9,000 merchants to 650+ million consumers globally. Episode Six operates in more than 45 countries, serving in excess of 70 enterprise customers.

Per earlier PYMNTS reporting, Trustly launched similar partnerships this year with telecom giant Verizon (June 4) and sports betting platform Hard Rock Digital (March 19).