GoCardless introduces Open Banking payments

Bank-to-bank payments fintech GoCardless has launched an Open Banking feature, Instant Bank Pay, that will give merchants an alternative way to collect instant payments from new and existing customers through a single platform. 

The new Open Banking feature is directly integrated into GoCardless’ global payment platform and is the first step in accelerating the fintech’s Open Banking strategy, for which it received $95 million in funding at the end of last year. 

Merchants can build the Instant Bank Pay option straight into their checkout flow or send a payment request with a link to pay. 

Hiroki Takeuchi, co-founder and CEO of GoCardless, said that the launch of Instant Bank Pay will “challenge the dominance of cards and move beyond collecting subscriptions, invoices and instalments”. 

According to research from GoCardless, 85% of merchants with a revenue-recurring business model need to collect additional one-off payments, and bank debit is not always suitable for these types of payments because it does not provide instant visibility of payment authorisation. 

Takeuchi said: “We’ve specialised in bank-to-bank payments for over 10 years, with bank debit as the primary payment method. And while it provides many advantages to consumers and businesses, speed of payment authorisation is a drawback.  

“Instant Bank Pay addresses this by giving merchants the best of both worlds: Open Banking will provide instant confirmation of payment authorisation, enabling them to have immediate visibility of their one-off payments, and bank debit will continue to offer the cash flow, cost and retention benefits they have come to expect.”