Stake: transforming brokerage with open banking

Founded in 2017, Stake is a global brokerage app that gives users from across the world direct access to trade US stocks.

Traditionally, investing in the US has been difficult and expensive for those outside of America.

“There are lots of forms to fill out and brokerage fees are high, making it really difficult for most people to trade,” said Bryan Wilmot, Global Head of Marketing at Stake. “We aim to eliminate all of these problems.”

The challenge

A core part of Stake’s value proposition is removing the cost and complexity associated with trading US stocks, without removing any of the sophistication users desire. Unsatisfied with traditional methods like bank transfers and card payments - which can take days to settle, are prone to human error, and charge expensive interchange fees - the team at Stake decided to look for an open banking based solution.

“

Slow processing times make it difficult for people to make nimble investments so finding a partner that could enable instant settlement was extremely important for us.

Dan Silver

COO and Co-Founder

The solution

Partnering with TrueLayer, Stake decided to integrate the Payments API to facilitate bank-to-bank payments, which meant users could top up and access funds instantly, in real-time, without having to enter card details or share their bank credentials.

Now, when making a funding decision on Stake, users decide the amount in GBP they want to fund into USD. When ready to transfer, users are redirected to their bank to authenticate the transaction, reducing the risk of fraud. This process takes seconds and users’ credentials are never shared with anyone but their bank.

“

Partnering with TrueLayer allows us to use its game-changing Payments API to improve the experience for our Stake community something we’re always looking to do. We’re all about breaking down barriers between global investors and the US stock market, and Payments Initiations will enable faster transfers without even having to leave the app.

Dan Silver

COO and Co-Founder

The results

Leveraging the Payments API, Stake’s users now benefit from quicker, and crucially, highly secure bank transfers, allowing them to make faster decisions which are critical for successful investors. Because TrueLayer charges a low fixed-fee per transaction, regardless of the amount, Stake is able to save on fees and pass these savings back to their users.