TrueLayer launches European payments combining instant deposits, refunds and withdrawals

By Joy Dumasia

TrueLayer, Europe’s leading open banking platform, announced it had launched its closed-loop payment product in Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Lithuania and the Netherlands. Traditional payment methods weren’t built to handle the speed of online commerce. With cards taking up to three days to settle, businesses struggle to manage liquidity, while customers have to wait in limbo for refunds and withdrawals. Cards and digital wallets generate substantial costs for merchants through interchange fees, chargeback penalties and time-consuming manual tracking processes. There is also the issue of rising card fraud in Europe, which totalled €1.55 billion in 2020, with card-not-present fraud accounting for 76% of those cases. France, Germany and Spain all ranked in the top five for card fraud losses.

TrueLayer is addressing these points with a more cost-effective, frictionless and secure payments product built on open banking and the fastest available bank payment rails that deliver:

• Instant pay-ins: Customers can top up their accounts, buy products and send money in seconds with account-to-account payments. Deposits settle in a dedicated merchant account and are automatically reconciled against customers’ details.
• Instant withdrawals and refunds: Verified account details are associated with each customer allowing businesses to provide instant withdrawals and refunds back into the same account used for the deposit with a simple API call.
• Dedicated merchant accounts: Businesses can automate reconciliation processes and gain full visibility of their customer’s account details as soon as payment settles. They can also withdraw automatically into their bank account.

Till Wirth, Head of Product at TrueLayer, commented: “With TrueLayer, FinTech firms, banks, trading platforms, crypto exchanges, eCommerce platforms and other businesses across Europe can create a better payment experience. With a single implementation, our platform delivers instant deposits, withdrawals and refunds. Instant deposits enable our customers to achieve higher conversion rates, which improves customer acquisition. Instant withdrawals and refunds lead to improved customer retention and loyalty as customers can see the instant transfer of funds with minimal fuss or having to chase support teams asking where their money is. In contrast, settlement and refunds with cards often takes three days or more.”

As a result, TrueLayer Payments is the most comprehensive solution on the market, delivering significant benefits for businesses and consumers, including:

• Instant access to funds: payments are confirmed instantly, enabling businesses to serve customers and receive funds faster. Real-time payment confirmation provides peace of mind that each transaction has been authorised, enabling businesses to ship goods and services right away.
• Frictionless checkout processes: inputting card details is inconvenient for customers, and errors can derail the entire checkout process. TrueLayer removes any manual entry on banking details, eliminating mistakes and making it easier to complete a payment.
• Fewer abandoned payments: tested on millions of transactions across the UK and Europe, TrueLayer’s embedded payment flows make paying easier than ever. The result is fewer payment abandonments and higher conversion rates.
• Lower operational costs: Open banking removes the interchange fees and chargebacks of cards, making them far more cost-effective. TrueLayer also automates expensive and time consuming manual processes such as reconciliation and sending payouts, with full visibility of all payments via the merchant dashboard.
• Reduced payment fraud: Payments are PSD2 and SCA compliant, with payments authenticated directly with the bank, reducing the opportunity for fraud and chargebacks.
• Enhanced customer experience: Instant deposits enable customers to use their funds immediately, and businesses can ship goods and services with the certainty they have received the funds. Instant refunds through TrueLayer provide an additional level of assurance that their money will be returned efficiently.

Till Wirth, Head of Product at TrueLayer, commented: “We have used our experience and expertise to deliver an effortless way to onboard new customers and enable them to quickly initiate payments and withdraw funds, delivering faster, safer and lower cost payments. That, in turn, supports increased trust and loyalty – for example, YouGov research found that 37% of investors said they would increase their deposits and 46% would switch providers if the investment platform also allowed them to withdraw their funds immediately.”