NatWest upgrades open banking payments service – Payit

By Megha Bhattacharya

NatWest today announced the roll-out of a new upgrade to its flagship open banking payments service – Payit by NatWest. The new development will allow businesses to send payments directly to customers without the need for their bank details. The company launched Payit in June, last year, to enable customers to make instant online payments to retailers without the need for a debit or a credit card. The service uses Open Banking infrastructure to allow UK banks’ customers to pay for services provided by the retailers who use the payment option.

NatWest stated that the feature aims to replace the use of cheques and bank transfers when sending money to customers, allowing for instant payments to be made when issuing refunds or customer service payments, as well as for specific uses such as compensation payments and emergency cash requirements.

James Hodgson, Payit by NatWest said, “The need for businesses to send their customers money often occurs at the most crucial moments, and yet the typical methods can be slow, inefficient and expensive.”

NatWest also announced that transport provider Northern is one of the latest UK businesses to offer Payit as an option for its customers. The company aims to continue enhancing Payit throughout 2021 with the introduction of a new API proposition for allowing merchants to integrate the solution directly with their technology infrastructures.

“We’re aiming to transform that experience with Payit, which now allows businesses to send payments that are credited to customer accounts in a matter of seconds, and all without the need for their bank details. With Payit now having processed over 200,000 fast, simple and safe transactions for our existing business customers, NatWest is looking forward to helping many more of the UK’s top businesses and their customers send and receive money in 2021.”

Recently, NatWest and Mastercard expanded their payments partnership with the agreement to convert NatWest’s retail and business debit cards to Mastercard. The agreement includes all NatWest Group brands: NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank and Coutts, totalling 16 million cards.