Avarda taps open banking services from Aiia to improve the digital payment experience

By Joy Dumasia

Avarda chose European open banking leader Aiia, a Mastercard company, to enable open banking payments through its white-label payment solutions for a wide range of retailers and merchants. Powered by Mastercard’s global open banking platform, Avarda provides online shoppers with a more hassle-free checkout experience. 

Both Avarda and Aiia see a tremendous opportunity for open banking to improve the customer experience and increase conversion rates. The ‘Pay-by-bank’ solution has already been kicked off in the Finnish eCommerce landscape with great results and is set to be further expanded across the Nordic region during 2022.

Furthermore, Aiia will empower Avarda’s white-labelled Buy Now, Pay Later solution based on account-to-account payments. With Aiia’s open banking capabilities in place, the consumer will not be redirected to any external banking login, ensuring higher conversion rates and a frictionless payment experience for the customer.

Mikael Johansson, CEO of Avarda, said: “The payment industry is developing at a high pace, and we want to stay on top of these developments at Avarda by delivering the most convenient payment solutions the market has to offer for merchants and retailers. We’ve been looking into open banking opportunities for a while and are thrilled to have launched this with Aiia and Mastercard as they hold a strong position and bank connectivity in the Nordics. Additionally, Aiia’s payment solution supports our strategy to put the retailer’s brand in focus, and overall we have experienced a very simple integration for our technical teams in implementing the service into ours.” 

Katharina Luschnik, Vice President, Product Sales of Aiia, a Mastercard company, said: “We’re happy to see Avarda taking on open banking payments to help it bring a fast, simple, and secure open banking payment experience to its wide range of Nordic merchants. Open banking payments is a win for merchants and, most importantly, their customers as it improves the overall online shopping experience. With our solid platform in place, the Avarda customers can authenticate and authorize the payment through Avarda with just a few clicks, so the collaboration truly shows a glimpse of what the future holds for the checkout landscape.”