5 Pay by Bank challenges: myth vs reality

Pay by Bank — I think about and talk about this topic a lot.

But sometimes I wonder, should we just call it a day? Yes, it gets 27 million payments in the UK each month. It's become a trusted payment method in iGaming and financial services. And yes, TrueLayer has built a business around it.

But on the flip side, it hasn’t entirely replaced cards. It’s not some perfect alternative that means we never have to talk about card fees or chargebacks ever again. And despite its success in some sectors, it isn’t the default payment method in ecommerce.

I started my talk at Money 20/20 with a similar opening. While it's harder to translate to an article, you might have already sensed I’m being a bit tongue in cheek.

I am excited about the opportunities with Pay by Bank, but to be clear, there are legitimate challenges to this payment method. I want to talk about the five most common ones I hear. I’ll also share the truth behind the claims.

1. “Shoppers aren’t crying out for Pay by Bank”

This is something I hear a lot, but it’s important to recognise that merchants drive Pay by Bank adoption. There are so many examples of this elsewhere. Look at contactless payments, which took years to gain mass adoption — they needed their Transport for London (TFL) moment in the UK, where TFL added contactless payments on the London Underground. Contactless usage suddenly spiked, and once consumers had tried it, usage stayed high.

It’s important to see ‌consumer adoption numbers follow ‌merchant adoption, so let’s dig into that. In the UK, we’ve reached over 27 million Pay by Bank payments every month, and it’s growing ~80% each year.

But what about shopper attitudes? According to our research in partnership with Juniper Research, 65% of all shoppers would feel safe using Pay by Bank as a payment method. This rises to 76% for 25–34 year-olds. We also know that some of our merchants at TrueLayer see 85% of their Pay by Bank transactions coming from returning users.

The reality? Shoppers are happy to try Pay by Bank when offered, and returning user rates are high.

2. “Pay by Bank hasn’t found product-market fit in ecommerce”

Another challenge I hear is that Pay by Bank hasn’t found — and might never find — product-market fit in ecommerce. But we’ve already seen the initial tipping point of ecommerce brands who now have live Pay by Bank options at checkout. At TrueLayer we’ve seen this coming for a while, but it’s only in the last six months that a lot of these have gone live.

Ryanair, for example, now has Pay by Bank at checkout in the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Belgium and more. Just Eat Takeaway has Pay by Bank live to millions of hungry takeaway shoppers. And lastminute.com has taken Pay by Bank to high average order value (AOV) transactions, seeing AOV increase by 20% when holiday-goers choose Pay by Bank.

We’re in the innovator phase of the product lifecycle — the first-movers have already moved. Next comes the early adopters — the brands who still have a chance to shape Pay by Bank to their exact needs before the mainstream gets the one-size-fits-all option.

According to our research of 300 ecommerce brands with over £1million annual revenue, 80% of brands have Pay by Bank somewhere on their roadmap. And interestingly, 90% of those are planning on starting work in the next 12 months.

The reality? The first ecommerce wave is here. The second wave is imminent.

3. “Pay by Bank won’t replace cards entirely”

It’s true. It’s not going to replace cards. But it’s not supposed to. To quote my CEO Francesco Simoneschi: “Pay by Bank isn’t about creating a world without cards, it’s about creating a world with more choice.” That choice fits many different payment preferences for customers. It also makes ‌checkout more resilient. If one payment method goes down, another is there as a back-up.

Just think back to the CrowdStrike outage in August last year. Some companies have found themselves without the ability to collect card payments. No matter how pro card you might be, that’s not good if it’s your only option at checkout. An option like Pay by Bank helps make sure you’re ready for the next outage. And it’s a common problem. Almost 7 in 10 ecommerce brands have had issues collecting card payments due to a system outage in the last 12 months. Payment diversity means resilience.

It doesn’t even have to be when a payment method ‘goes down’. We’re‌ seeing brands use Pay by Bank as a sales recovery method when a single transaction using another payment method fails.

The reality? Pay by Bank will be a part of a diverse and resilient checkout

4. “Pay by Bank is for one-time payments only, not recurring payments”

For those following along with Pay by Bank, this challenge probably feels pretty fair. The reason I say it’s a fair challenge is because variable recurring payments (VRP) have been on the radar for a few years now. And we at TrueLayer claimed that VRP is the future of recurring payments as far back as 2021.

After all, it settles in real-time, unlike card payments and direct debit, and like other Pay by Bank payments, it's very secure. But it’s been limited to sweeping, which is where a shopper can automatically move money between bank accounts in their name and arrange recurring payments. That’s nice, but obviously very limiting.

The major value is through what we’ve termed ‘Bank on file’. With it, consumers will be able pay for goods and services on a recurring basis.

And yes, it’s been a bit of a slog, but 2025 is shaping up to be the year of change for VRP, in the UK at least. The FCA set out that it would work with industry to enable consumers to make recurring payments to businesses, by October 2025. It identified the following use cases in the first wave: utility companies, financial services and government. The FCA also signalled that more industries and use cases will follow in 2026.

The reality? After a slow start, we’re hoping 2025 is a big year for variable recurring payments.

5. “Pay by Bank lacks consumer protections (like chargebacks)”

The more Pay by Bank grows in ecommerce, the more we see ‌incumbents rally around one particular issue: consumer protection. They claim Pay by Bank sees consumers as less protected than when they use cards.

But, as TrueLayer’s CEO Francesco Simoneschi said in a recent article, “it is important to be specific about what we’re saying. If we look more closely, the difference between Pay by Bank and cards is not consumer protection. It’s chargebacks.”

At TrueLayer, we believe consumer protection is critical, but it’s time to be honest about chargebacks. They aren’t the answer to modern dispute resolution. They largely exist to help victims of card fraud, which would be rendered unnecessary with Pay by Bank. And more worryingly, they‌ even sometimes cause fraud.

It’s also important to note that Pay by Bank is inherently safe, secure and protected. For one, it has the same legal protection as every other type of payment. And if something goes wrong with a purchase, you are also protected. Merchants are required under the Consumer Rights Act to refund consumers if goods aren't satisfactory.

We’re also looking at merchant insolvency. This is ultimately about incentivising Pay by Bank providers to act as gatekeepers of the Pay by Bank system, just like how card schemes operate. It also helps acquirers build processes for refunding customers should the worst-case scenario — merchant insolvency — arise.

The reality? Pay by Bank is inherently safe. Chargebacks are not the solution to modern dispute reosultion.

Five reasons you should seriously consider Pay by Bank

Pay by Bank isn’t the finished product, but TrueLayer and the wider industry have steadily overcome the barriers we’ve faced. In the process, Pay by Bank has become a payment method that’s great for shoppers and merchants alike, and the strong growth in adoption is testament to that.

The five claims I’ve spoken about here all stem from real concerns and understandable doubts that Pay by Bank could challenge the ubiquity of cards. I hope I’ve convinced you that many of these concerns are unfounded, and that we’re actively working to break down any remaining barriers.

2025, in particular, is shaping up to be a big year for Pay by Bank. To get up to speed on all that’s happening, get your copy of the Pay by Bank update.