Finding your perfect payments match
If you’re reading this, you’re at a critical stage in your journey to add open banking payments to your website or app.
As a payments product buyer, you likely know the problems with traditional online payment methods like card payments and manual bank transfers (high costs, high failure rates and poor user experiences to name a few).
You’ve reached the conclusion that the benefits of open banking payments can help you reduce reliance on other payment methods, reduce costs and fraud — whether that’s adding another option to your existing payment experience, or using it as the standalone payment method for your customers. And you’re ready to serve the 65 million open banking users there will be across Europe by 2024.
But how do you choose the provider that can build the right open banking payment experience for your business? The ever-evolving open banking landscape is an opportunity and a challenge. The regulatory picture is changing at different speeds in different countries, and finding a trusted partner is key to making the most of this technology.
This guide is designed to help you with that. It’ll walk you through each aspect you need to consider when choosing an open banking payments provider. From understanding the nuances of global coverage to knowing exactly how to integrate open banking payments into your customer journey, this guide covers it all.
Haven’t quite reached this stage in your open banking journey just yet? Start with our comprehensive guide to open banking to get to know open banking, and how it can benefit your business.
Before you get started
While this guide is designed to help you better understand what questions you need to ask your provider, one question you should ask yourself is: “What am I trying to achieve with this new payment experience?” Without that clarity in mind, it can be hard to focus on the most important questions and the answers you need.
Remember, once you’ve shortlisted your providers, the next step is often a request for proposal (RFP) or request for information (RFI). These tasks can take weeks or even months, so having the goal always in mind will help you reach the end of that process with a chosen provider who can deliver exactly what you need.
For the purpose of this guide, we’ll refer to the payment method as ‘open banking payments’ because PSD2 legislation — commonly known as open banking — made this payment method a reality.
However, this isn’t necessarily how you should name the payment method when speaking to customers. Instant bank payment, instant bank transfer, and pay by bank have become common customer-facing ways to describe an open banking payment. A good provider will guide you on the right naming conventions to increase customer adoption. More on that in Payer experience.
How to use this guide
The buyer’s guide to open banking payments is your playbook for finding the right open banking payment partner for your business. With it, you can better understand which aspects of the overall payment experience are key to your brand’s success.
The guide is broken down into seven sections, each covering a part of the selection process.
Coverage
Understand how coverage — where you can take a payment or pay out through open banking across the globe — should be defined and measured, along with the complexities and quirks of different markets.
Features and functionality
The ability to collect a payment or allow your users to fund their accounts are table stakes for open banking. But there are so many other potential features throughout the lifespan of a payment that could improve your brand’s payment experience.
Integration options
How you add open banking payments to your app or website will depend on your developer resources and how quickly you want to go to market. Get to know what integration options are available and which is right for you.
Payer experience
Your open banking payment method is only as good as the customer’s experience when paying. Learn how the right provider can help you design open banking payment journeys that increase adoption and conversion.
Stability and security
Can you rely on your provider to help you build a payment experience that is both reliable and safe for your business and customers? Understand how to judge the quality of a provider’s testing and security regimes.
Ongoing support
A good provider will help you launch a payment experience that works from day one. But ongoing support — both reactive and proactive — will be the mark of a long-term partnership with a provider.
Provider expertise
While you might get all the right answers to your questions, can you trust your provider to deliver? Discover how to evaluate your provider’s expertise, experience and track record.
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