Canada’s Flinks unveils instant payment offering

Canadian Open Banking platform Flinks has unveiled Flinks Pay in beta, marking its entry into the instant payments market.

The new payment offering from Flinks will allow businesses to “instantly, affordably and reliably” receive payments from their customers.

Flinks Pay’s UI means that a business’ customers can accept e-transfer requests and make payments directly from their devices and, in turn, businesses are provided with the infrastructure to initiate payments and settle funds.

According to Meng Guan, product marketing manager at Flinks: “Real-time, instant payments for businesses are not currently available widely in the Canadian market.

“Many businesses are looking for solutions to help them reduce their payment risk and ultimately lower the cost of processing payments.”

She added: “As part of our commitment to ensure Canadians have access to better financial products, Flinks is looking to change this, making instant payments accessible to any company by embedding them directly into their products and services.”

Flinks Pay is initially available for companies to try in beta, with a view to being fully released in early 2024.

Among the features due to go live in the next few months on Flinks Pay are standard electronic fund transfer (EFT) payments, recurring payments, credit card payments, and real-time guaranteed EFT payments.

Adam Gibson, general manager, Open Banking products at Flinks took part in a panel session at Open Banking Expo Canada in June this year, about the challenges of implementing Open Banking in Canada.

On 21 November, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland outlined her intention to deliver Open Banking, referred to as “consumer-driven banking”, in the Fall Economic Statement.

The Canadian government will mandate the use of a single technical standard, following consultation with stakeholders and a review of “international best practices”.