Railsbank and Plaid team up to offer Payment Initiation to SMEs

By Megha Bhattacharya

Railsbank and open finance platform Plaid have announced a partnership in a bid to enable any company, or brand, in the UK to embed finance into their customer journey. The companies stated that the collaboration is expected to satisfy increasing demand from companies and brands, both within and outside the financial services industry, who are adding end-user wallets, payments, savings, credit and bank accounts to their platforms and wish to simplify the process.

Nigel Verdon, co-founder and CEO of Railsbank, said, “This partnership is all about making it easier for any company, or brand, to embed finance into their customer journey. We are creating one of the major building blocks that makes embedded finance a viable proposition for virtually every company, or brand, in business today. We are delighted to be working together with Plaid on what is a huge step forward.

“Together we are making it simpler for any company to take advantage of the golden opportunity that changing consumer demand and Open Banking presents, enabling them to deliver innovative financial services that attract and retain customers, and boost their bottom lines.”

According to Railsbank, the partnership will enable customers to offer Payment Initiation to consumers and SMEs, which allows customers to instantly collect money directly from their bank account. It provides benefits such as increased user experience, lower costs, greater speed, boosted security and faster conversion. It offers a lower-cost alternative to cards and provides a simple account opening or wallet replenishment experience. Payment Initiation is available on a mobile or desktop. The company’s customer ikigai will be using Payment Initiation as a function of its investment management offering.

Maurizio Kaiser, co-founder of ikigai, said, “The new partnership gives ikigai access to a best-in-class payment initiation solution to streamline our account funding capabilities, and a seamless experience for our clients. While the benefits are clear, for challenger players such as ourselves, Open Banking can mean a significant operational hurdle with substantial time investment needed to meet them. With Railsbank’s, and now Plaid’s operational support, we’ve been able to tap into those benefits, allowing our clients to easily top up their accounts through Open Banking, while still focusing our full attention on ikigai’s growth. We’re excited to see how this partnership grows and takes us closer to redefining the future of wealth.”

Recently, Railsbank teamed up with Yimba to provide its customers with products and services that will enhance their digital wallet experience with the likes of Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay. The partnership will provide Yimba with complementary services to the growing number of products already provided by Railsbank and also rapidly expand partners utilising its services.

Keith Grose, Head of International at Plaid, said, “The true scope of the embedded finance opportunity is just starting to take shape, but it is already clear that Open Banking payments will emerge in many more places in the years to come. As fintech-powered payments and digital wallets gain prevalence, more companies will seek to leverage the power of APIs through partnerships like Railsbank and Plaid to make it easier to move money online.”