Paysend enters Open Banking Payment initiation partnership with Plaid

By Gloria Methri

UK-based FinTech Paysend has launched a new Open Banking Payment Initiation partnership with Plaid. The partnership will enable Paysend to provide an additional secure solution for its business customers to receive payments, improve their checkout conversion rates, reduce transaction processing fees, and enhance anti-fraud capabilities.

Merchants can connect with their customers’ banks via Plaid and initiate a payment through open banking rails instead of traditional payment methods like cards or direct debits. Once the end customer confirms payment and pushes funds from their account, Paysend makes them available to the merchant the next day.

Сustomers don’t need to enter their card numbers to make a payment and merchants will not need to hold consumer payment details.

Paysend says small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will benefit from a transaction fee up to 45% lower than average card payments, with improved conversion rates and high-level security, resulting in fewer chargebacks. The solution will initially be available for payments made from UK bank accounts, with plans to roll out across Europe in 2023.

Ashley Mallett, Head of Business at Paysend, said, “Launching Open Banking Payment Initiation will give companies a secure, user-friendly, and cost-effective way to accept online payments in the UK. Through Plaid, customers can connect to a global network of 12,000 financial institutions, including the CMA9 and many other longtail institutions. As this Payment initiative debits customer accounts, avoiding card scheme involvement, companies can significantly reduce costs and diversify their supply chain by utilising our next-generation product.”

Earlier this year, Paysend launched Paysend Business to help accelerate the financial growth of SMEs by delivering an ecosystem of end-to-end digital payments solutions and other tools. By creating more opportunities for SMEs to connect around the globe, the partnership with Plaid can help businesses improve the security and speed of their payments to focus on growth.