Tim Waterman, Chief Commercial Officer, Zopa argues that awareness of the consumer benefits needs to be improved for the next leg of growth for open banking. Reports show that we are nearing 4 million open banking customers in the UK. Although this sounds like a large number, should we be patting ourselves on the back?... Continue Reading →

A guide to Variable Recurring Payments in open banking from Yapily Yapily have been unwrapping Variable Recurring Payments; What are Variable Recurring Payments (VRP)?Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) are a huge milestone for open banking. This allows variable payment amounts to be collected on an ongoing basis and, when fully mandated, will act as a smarter, flexible... Continue Reading →

Ex-Ripple and Visa executives unveil global retail micropayments network for Web 3.0 pingNpay, a global micropayment network backed by blockchain technology, has announced that it will make its network operational next year. The start-up plans to create a new category of high frequency, low value payments (below $20 per transaction) aimed at unlocking new digital retail... Continue Reading →

Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) are one of the latest ideas in open banking, some say that they might rival Direct Debits.  Open Future World, Ozone and UK Finance have decided to host the world’s first open banking Hackathon, with sponsorship from Accenture, Mastercard, VOLT and Worldpay from FIS. The hackathon will focus on financial institutions can use... Continue Reading →

In this thought piece Nick Raper at Nuapay asks how can Open Banking make Direct Debits more secure? As well told in a previous blog by Mike here, Direct Debits first emerged back in 1968, when a Unilever employee invented a solution to the problem of collecting variable payments from thousands of ice-cream sellers. The employee, Alastair... Continue Reading →

The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) has published two documents following the conclusion of the second phase of its consultation on Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) and Sweeping. The documents are: VRP and Sweeping User Research Final Report Phase II Feedback Summary and OBIE Response Paper This consultation process was started in November 2020. Feedback from the first phase... Continue Reading →

Over half (55%) of CEOs at Building Societies view Open Banking as an opportunity according to a new report published by Whitecap Consulting, in partnership with the Building Societies Association (BSA).  However, this technology is relatively new and unexplored by the sector with just over a third saying that they have not yet assessed Open Banking’s benefits for... Continue Reading →

The UK’s roughly 90 trillion-pound payments industry is on the cusp of a dramatic makeover. Even before Covid-19, payment providers were under pressure to retool their offerings to better serve an increasingly digitised customer base that demands greater flexibility and control over their money. And the pandemic has only served to accelerate this dynamic.  Meanwhile,... Continue Reading →

Digital overlays use real-time payments to settle a payment or transaction, or to provide an ancillary service for a real-time payments method; these are services over and above the core payment processing that adds value to the standard payments. These can be used to improve the workflows and customer experience in a range of payment... Continue Reading →

Great to see The Times covering Ecospend’s pay-by-bank solution going live on the HMRC website, the first government department to adopt Open Banking payments.  Paying your tax bill just got a whole lot easier. The 11 million people who fill out self-assessment forms online will no longer have to find credit card details, passwords or unique tax references when paying the taxman.Instead you... Continue Reading →

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have published a consultation paper on the future governance of Open Banking. As the implementation phase of the OBIE’s work concludes, it is important to consider how open banking forward in the UK can be driven forward and help customers take more control of their finances.  Your submissions to this consultation... Continue Reading →

The European payments sector is in the midst of a transformation driven by technological innovation and evolving regulation, redefining its very potential and protagonists. A guest blog by:  Marco Folcia, Sara Marcozzi, Valentina Grilli, Fabrizia Capillo, PWC Italy. In this regard, the birth and consolidation of the Open Banking framework[1] can be attributed, on the one hand,... Continue Reading →

The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) has developed a new online tool to help firms gain additional insight into the maturity of their counter-fraud defences and help identify potential areas of improvement. The tool is available exclusively to regulated and approved participants enrolled in the OBIE Directory and has been designed for both well-established firms,... Continue Reading →

untied launches Making Tax Digital early adopter programme, the first end to end service recognised by HMRC. Source: untied untied, the UK’s personal tax app, today announced that one of its users has successfully made the UK’s first Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax submission powered by Open Banking data. Making Tax Digital for... Continue Reading →

untied, the UK’s personal tax app, today announced that one of its users made the first-ever open banking-enabled tax payment to HMRC. This landmark payment was powered by untied’s partner, Fractal Labs as part of the companies’ SMART (SMEs Manage Accounts Receivables and Tax) initiative, backed by the Banking Competition Remedies Capability and Innovation Fund. Making... Continue Reading →

The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) has launched a consultation on variable recurring payments rules. The organisation, which was established in 2016 by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to implement the infrastructure and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) necessary for the roll out of Open Banking. The consultation, which launches today, marks the next step in the... Continue Reading →

Open Banking is taking a firm hold in the UK, with user numbers doubling to two million in just over six months. The latest figures from the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), the body set up by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to deliver open banking in the UK, show a steady increase at a rate of... Continue Reading →

Imran’s vision for Open Finance, encouraging ‘premium’ APIs, and whether Open Banking is actually working. After years of promises, regulatory back and forth, and campaigning by both supporters and critics, Open Banking is today used by millions of people and businesses to manage their finances—most of whom have never even heard of ‘Open Banking’. It... Continue Reading →

Open Banking is taking a firm hold in the UK, with user numbers doubling to two million in just over six months. The latest figures from The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), the body set up by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to deliver open banking in the UK, show a steady increase at... Continue Reading →

Answer Pay and Mastercard have completed the first live Request to Pay transactions in the UK. The move follows the launch of Answer Pay’s certified repository and is a significant step in the development of the Pay.UK ecosystem.  Answer Pay is designed to support payment services providers with Request to Pay+ services through a simple... Continue Reading →

First UK bank to use open banking to enable credit card holders to pay their balance Tesco Bank is to become the first UK bank to introduce new technology that allows its 2.6 million credit card customers to more easily manage and pay their balance. More: Tesco Bank rolls out Mastercard Open Banking Connect™ to its... Continue Reading →

This article first appeared in the Payments, Payments, Payments newsletter - read, subscribe and share: northeypoint.substack.com/welcome The latest Current Account Switch Service discussion paper provides an update on work to consider how the UK’s current account switch journey could evolve in an era of Open Banking. Enhancing current account switching in the era of Open Banking examines... Continue Reading →

Hamish and the team at Trilo have built a whole new way to pay, secured with Open Banking, and they’re launching their first phase today! Go check it out: get.trilo.io/p/michaejj Earn cashback whenever you pay, all in a few seconds. Merchants receive their payments in minutes for 0.2%. Join them now and get your Earlybird rewards... Continue Reading →

The Emerging Payments Association (EPA), which celebrates collaboration and innovation between new and existing finance companies, has today (28 April 2020) published a report on open banking. Northey Point was pleased to be a contributor to this report. The report provides an analysis of opportunities for payments in open banking and strategies for realising them.... Continue Reading →

https://youtu.be/Eqc1AxLeNxI Finextra: Jim Wadsworth, SVP Open Banking at Mastercard spoke to Hannah Wallace, FinextraTV at Merchant Payments Ecosystem 2020 in Berlin about how things have moved on with Open Banking and the part regulation has played moving European intervention along. We learn about the impact innovation and collaboration has had on the merchants payments industry,... Continue Reading →