TrueLayer Expands EU Pay-by-Bank Network Into Credit

European pay-by-bank network TrueLayer has expanded into credit by acquiring Dutch buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider in3.

This combination will enable TrueLayer to offer both debit and credit at checkout, will provide merchants an alternative to cards and card-dependent credit products, and will allow consumers to pay immediately or over time through the same pay-by-bank experience, the company said in a Friday (May 29) press release.

TrueLayer plans to complement this BNPL offering with longer-duration credit products later this year, according to the release.

“With the addition of in3’s team and their deep expertise in consumer credit, we now have the people, the network and the products to build a truly independent European payments alternative to the card networks,” TrueLayer CEO and Co-Founder Francesco Simoneschi said in the release.

in3’s credit model is designed for account-to-account payments, and the company serves millions of consumers and thousands of merchants, according to the release.

TrueLayer’s payments network reaches more than 25 million consumers across 22 countries and processes over $150 billion in annualized payment volume.

The acquisition will give in3 the infrastructure to bring its credit option to millions more people across Europe, in3 CEO Hans Langenhuizen said in the release.

“Together, we are giving merchants and consumers instant payments and flexible credit in a single checkout experience,” Langenhuizen said.

In an announcement on its website, TrueLayer said the move will provide merchants with more flexible payment options within a single integrated checkout experience, improved products and services, and no change to their current services and support channels.

For consumers, the acquisition will bring no changes to their existing account, payments and checkout method and will provide more choice and convenience at checkout in the future, the company said.

In another recent move, TrueLayer announced in March that it completed its acquisition of Nordic payments provider Zimpler. The company said the deal expanded its network across Nordic markets and brought leading regional merchant integrations and millions of consumers onto the TrueLayer platform.

In February, TrueLayer announced that eBay invested in TrueLayer and that the companies were collaborating to allow eBay’s U.K. buyers to pay directly from their bank accounts.