GoCardless Debuts Open Banking Feature Called Instant Bank Pay

GoCardless, a FinTech platform for bank-to-bank payments, has rolled out Instant Bank Pay, which is a new open banking feature directly integrated with the company’s global payment platform, according to a press release.

Instant Bank Pay allows merchants to take instant one-off, bank-to-bank payments from new or existing customers and still keep the benefits of bank debit for recurring payments, the release stated.

With the announcement, GoCardless unveiled part of its new strategy for open banking, for which the company received $95 million in funding at the end of last year, according to the release.

Through the combination of its open banking technology with its existing network for global banking, GoCardless will be able to offer its over 60,000 merchants a low-cost, convenient method for collecting instant payments, the release stated. The tech will make it easier for businesses to make one-off, account-to-account (A2A) payments, which could save many merchants from time-consuming manual processes or high fees.

“By enabling businesses to take any kind of payment through GoCardless, we can challenge the dominance of cards and move beyond collecting subscriptions, invoices and installments,” said GoCardless Co-Founder and CEO Hiroki Takeuchi in the release. “The launch of this open banking feature means we can now serve any merchant, regardless of whether they have an ongoing or one-off relationship with their customers.”

Open banking is still a fairly new concept for Americans, with over half of them saying they have “no clue” what it is, according to the release. GoCardless’ strategy will help to solve some consumer issues with banking, including having to pay for things using multiple payment platforms and having to update payment details on multiple interfaces.

Open banking has grown since it first debuted years ago, and merchants now just need to wait for customers to be persuaded to adopt it. Consumer interest in open banking is also growing, though, and one study found that 63 percent of U.K. customers would be amenable to newer kinds of online pay options if they promised better transaction security.