Token brings Open Banking to property sector

Turnkey Open Banking platform provider, Token.io, today announces partnerships with two of the UK’s leading property marketplaces, StuRents and Mashroom, to enable renters, landlords and agents to benefit from open banking services, including bank direct payments and data aggregation.

StuRents operates a national student property platform that combines a student-centric property search with online contract signing, payment facilitation, property management and research capabilities. It has chosen to integrate Token’s open banking technology to expand the payment options available to tenants and property managers who transact within StuRents’ ecosystem.

Tom Walker, co-founder of StuRents, says: “The last 18 months have presented the UK rental sector with a series of seismic legislative changes that have fundamentally challenged the business models of property managers up and down the country. 2018’s card fee ban, coupled with the recently introduced ban on tenant fees have emphasised the need for cost-efficient and frictionless payment mechanisms. Being at the forefront of the rapidly evolving payments landscape was, and continues to be, a key focus for StuRents in delivering a market-leading payments infrastructure to property managers. The integration of Token’s open banking technology is a great example of this continued commitment.”

Mashroom is an end-to-end property lettings platform that combines technology and community to deliver an efficient way for landlords and agents to let, secure, and maintain properties. In addition to offering bank direct payments to customers, by using Token’s platform it will be able to securely access renters’ data to validate rental affordability before entering into a contract.

Alexander Badalyan, Mashroom Chief Value Officer, comments: “Collecting rent has always been a tedious manual process with high processing costs. We’re working with Token to change that. Mashroom is committed to equipping landlords and tenants with state-of-the-art technology and integrating Token’s platform means we can provide our customers with simple to use value-added services, as well as PSD2-compliant access to banks for data and payments requests. We are nearing the launch of our platform and look forward to offering our customers bank-direct payments and next-generation affordability assessments.”

Token co-founder and CMO, Marten Nelson, adds: “Open banking is not just about banking and financial services; it is about democratizing access to data to create better digital experiences that can supersede outdated and expensive processes. First movers StuRents and Mashroom have been quick to identify open banking opportunities for the property sector, and other Proptechs will follow.”

Compared to conventional debit card rails, Token.io streamlines and reduces the cost of payment acceptance by over 50%, as well as enabling instant processing.

Source: Token