Plaid unveils payment partner ecosystem

Open Banking payments network Plaid has launched a ‘payment partner ecosystem’ comprising around 50 US and European companies, including Square and Checkout.com, with the aim to boost account-to-account (A2A) payment transactions.

Its new ecosystem of payment partners are focused on providing flexible options so that any company can make bank payments an option in their checkout flows, and help streamline digital account onboarding, top-ups, and payouts.

The ecosystem includes longtime Plaid partners, such as Square and Railsbank, as well as new partners Checkout.com, Marqeta and Currencycloud.

In the UK and Europe, Railsbank and Currencycloud have embedded Plaid’s Payment Initiation Services (PIS) within their existing product to help companies offer and accept Open Banking payments, while in the US, Plaid has partnered with providers including Dwolla, Galileo, Silicon Valley Bank and Square, to integrate Plaid’s connectivity technology into their respective processing technology for faster bank payments.

In a blog post, Paul Williamson, head of revenue and partnerships at Plaid, wrote that the number of people using digital wallets is expected to reach 4.4 billion by 2025, up from 2.6 billion in 2020.

“Account-based payments can help businesses improve customer experiences and conversion, increase loyalty, and cut costs but account-based payment needs vary depending on businesses’ location and industry,” Williamson said.

“Plaid’s ecosystem incorporates nearly 50 partner companies across North America and Europe, including payment and tech providers and BaaS platforms, serving a spectrum of verticals from ecommerce to gaming – all offering the tools and services needed to build the best digital financial experiences.”

He wrote: “With the launch of our ecosystem, we’re also announcing new partnerships with Checkout.com and Marqeta to bolster our global ecosystem.”

Tracy Meng, VP of partnerships at Checkout.com, called it the “beginning of a shared journey to unlock the future of embedded finance”.

“Many of the fastest-growing fintechs globally are powered by Plaid and Checkout.com’s best-in-class APIs. Our partnership will connect Plaid’s account verification and Checkout.com’s payment services to make account funding accessible, seamless, and secure for fintechs and merchants alike,” said Meng.

“We’re proud to partner with Plaid to make it seamless for our joint customers to implement digital payments experiences and benefit from Marqeta and Plaid’s developer-friendly APIs,” added Darren Mowry, chief revenue officer at Marqeta.