SOFORT and Brite Payments partner to launch instant payouts in Europe

By Joy Dumasia

SOFORT, Europe’s market leader for online bank transfers, has announced a unique open banking partnership with the instant payment provider Brite Payments. Launching in July 2022, the new partnership will see SOFORT’s bank transfer product complemented by Brite Payments’ instant payout solution. Following the launch, merchants using the SOFORT platform will be able to opt for the service and activate Brite Payments’ innovative instant payout solution without additional technical effort, allowing them to disburse funds to consumers within seconds. 

The joint solution, entitled ‘SOFORT Instant Payouts powered by BRITE’, lets merchants facilitate instant payouts through their existing SOFORT Bank Transfer integration. This means there is no need for labour-intensive integrations, enabling a quicker ‘go to market’. Additionally, Brite Payments will continue to offer its standalone instant payment service for businesses separately from the SOFORT platform. 

Since its inception, SOFORT’s online banking-based payment method, also known as Sofortüberweisung in Germany, has been used for more than one billion transactions and boasts more than 85 million users. Now, many of these customers will be able to start receiving funds instantly when requesting a payout from their online platform. As part of the partnership, Brite Payments will disburse funds to the same bank account used to make the initial payment with SOFORT, offering a genuine one-click solution. 

Lena Hackelöer, CEO and founder of Brite Payments, said: “We’re all very excited to launch our joint solution across some of the continent’s leading markets, where SOFORT is a highly popular payment solution with online shoppers. This prominence makes them the ideal partner for us. Combined with our instant payout technology, we can jointly provide a very convenient solution for consumers and merchants alike. Instant payments are the future of payments, and together with SOFORT, we want to finally anchor this technology in everyday life.” 

Wilko Klaassen, Managing Director Sofort GmbH, commented: “We are very proud to offer our SOFORT users instant payouts in a manner that complements our existing direct bank transfer product by establishing this unique partnership with Brite Payments. Instant payouts is a service for which we have seen a great need in the market for some time, and we are pleased to have found a solution as efficient and innovative as Brite’s. This additional service, ‘SOFORT Instant Payouts powered by BRITE’ is offering our partners and users the speed and convenience required within the e-commerce space.”