GoCardless unveils Instant Bank Pay, a new alternative to taking one-off payments

By Pavithra R

GoCardless, on a mission to take the pain out of getting paid for businesses with recurring revenue, has announced the launch of Instant Bank Pay, a new open banking feature directly integrated into its global payment platform.

Instant Bank Pay enables merchants to take instant, one-off bank-to-bank payments from new and existing customers while still reaping the benefits of bank debit for their recurring payments. The new feature provides better visibility of payments, eliminates costly credit card fees, and reduces late payments. The announcement marks the first milestone in the company’s journey to accelerate its open banking strategy, for which it received $95 mn in funding at the end of 2020.

“We’ve specialized in bank-to-bank payments for over 10 years, with bank debit being the primary payment method. And, while it provides many advantages to consumers and businesses, speed of payment authorization is a drawback. Instant Bank Pay addresses this pain point by giving merchants the best of both worlds: open banking will provide instant confirmation of payment authorization, enabling them to have immediate visibility of their one-off payments, and bank debit will continue to offer the cash flow, cost and retention benefits business owners have come to expect,” said Hiroki Takeuchi, co-founder and CEO of GoCardless.

By combining open banking technology with its global bank debit network, the FinTech will offer over 60,000 merchants a new low-cost, seamless and convenient way to collect instant payments that work for any revenue model. Through the launch of the new solution, the firm plans to expand its offering into the adjacent e-commerce market, where it can take on both one-off and card-on-file payments.

“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. 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,” added Takeuchi.

Merchants can build the Instant Bank Pay option into their checkout flow or by sending a payment request with a link to pay. Similar to a mobile wallet payment, payers are seamlessly connected to their bank and can authorize a payment directly from their bank account.