TrueLayer and Incredible ‘pioneer’ VRPs for credit repayments

European Open Banking platform TrueLayer has teamed up with UK credit management app Incredible to provide variable recurring payments (VRPs) to the app’s customers.

Incredible uses Open Banking APIs to consolidate customers’ account information on one dashboard, from where they can view, track, forecast and repay their borrowings.

By implementing TrueLayer’s platform in the app, Incredible’s customers will be able to set up automatic payments between their bank accounts and their Incredible account.

Nick Tucker, head of financial services at TrueLayer, called VRPs “a step change in debt management”, and said the Open Banking-enabled technology allows users to set up secure and flexible repayment plans with greater ease and convenience.

“We look forward to working with Incredible to provide Open Banking payments that are more responsive to customers’ needs,” Tucker added.

VRPs for sweeping payments allows the automatic movement of money, in variable amounts, between customers’ accounts, TrueLayer said.

The Competition and Markets Authority set a 31 July 2022 deadline for the UK’s nine largest banks to support VRP for sweeping, or ‘me-to-me payments’.

Yaseen Rostom, chief executive officer and co-founder of Incredible, said: “At some point in our lives we’ve all fallen prey to unplanned overdraft fees, late payment fees and other charges, simply because it’s a by-product of a system that does very little to optimise for financial resilience.

“Incredible is pioneering a new use case for VRPs, facilitating better credit repayments to improve financial wellbeing.”

Rostom added that working with TrueLayer brings it closer to “fulfilling the promise of open finance”.

In May last year, NatWest signed agreements with payment providers TrueLayer, GoCardless and Crezco to begin offering VRPs as a new payment option for businesses and consumers.