Splitwise teams up with Tink to offer direct bank payments

By Gloria Methri

Splitwise, a popular app for sharing bills and expenses, has partnered with Tink to offer the Pay by Bank feature to its users in the UK. The partnership enables millions of Splitwise users to initiate direct payments to friends and family from within the Splitwise app.

For over a decade, Splitwise has been helping users organise expenses and track balances with friends. Now, with the help of Tink, Splitwise can enable direct money transfers from friend to friend through its app in markets supported by Tink’s open banking solution.

Prior to partnering with Tink, Splitwise users had to exit Splitwise and go to their banking app to initiate payment and then return to Splitwise to confirm they had settled up with their friends. Now, friends can link their bank accounts and settle up in seconds by initiating a secure bank-to-bank payment with one tap. This new payment experience is the logical next phase in the Splitwise journey.

There are two elements to the partnership: Account Check and Pay by Bank. First, Tink’s Account Check enables Splitwise users to easily connect their bank details to their Splitwise account. Account Check confirms the owner of a bank account by fetching real-time data from banks with the user’s consent, such as the account number and account holder name. Once bank details have been verified, they can be used to initiate and receive payments through the app.

Tink’s Pay by Bank then enables users to initiate payments directly from their bank account within the Splitwise app. This account-to-account payment method provides a secure and streamlined experience by letting users authenticate and pay in a few clicks in-app. With zero data entry and fewer redirects, it is one of the most frictionless ways to pay online.

Jonathan Bittner, the CEO and co-founder of Splitwise, said, “We have always believed that any customer of ours should be able to pay their friends or family back securely and safely, right from within our app. Our open-banking partnership with Tink is enabling a long-awaited step towards that goal. Tink has been an ideal partner for our Pay by Bank functionality and we are eager to expand open-banking solutions with them in other regions.”

Ian Morrin, Head of Payments and Platforms at Tink, added, “Splitwise is a fantastic tool for consumers to manage their money and easily calculate who owes whom. We have thoroughly enjoyed teaming up to enhance the user experience by making it possible to pay back friends instantly. Accepting bank payments directly from within the app means avoiding manual entry and clunky redirects, as well as minimising fraud.”

“Pay by Bank is a truly innovative payment method that is powered by open banking technology, which we believe will change the way we pay. Consumer adoption is naturally a big focus of ours, and the key to accelerating the adoption is to provide an efficient user experience built on trust and understanding.”