OpenPayd, Token to unlock Open Banking, data-as-a-service for business

By Sunniva Kolostyak

Banking-as-a-Service provider OpenPayd has partnered with Open Banking provider Token in a move to provide business customers with API-led and data-driven services, the companies revealed.

Speaking to IBS Intelligence, Adam Bialy, Chief Product Officer at OpenPayd, and Todd Clyde, CEO of Token, revealed that the partnership will be rolled out in three phases, with an eye on extending solutions to the pan-European market.

Currently in phase one, OpenPayd is integrating with Token.io’s API platform to provide customers with the ability to bring together business and corporate bank accounts into a single dashboard.

In the second phase, OpenPayd will introduce its simple and secure Open Banking API, enabling its customers, including crypto, financial institutions, remittance companies, lenders, and online marketplaces, to offer banking, payments and Open Banking services directly to their own customers. This includes payment initiation, whilst ensuring PSD2 compliance.

The third phase, Bialy told us, will include more utilisation of data. “It is taking that dashboard connection to another level and, based on the data endpoints in particular, trying to derive meaningful insights and then push it back to our customers as a product offering in itself. So, Data-as-a-Service off the back of Open Banking is going to be phase three, probably implemented at some point mid to late next year.”

He added that Open Banking has provided even more use cases within B2B as it allows enterprises to dig deep into problems which were previously not possible due to cost or lacking and ubiquitous data.

Clyde, CEO of Token, added that APIs for data use cases taken off quickly, particularly in the UK, and is, together with Open Banking payments like payment initiation, reaching an inflexion point.

“Token and OpenPayd sell to businesses, and what we can enable them with is insights on their customers and a cheaper form of payment acceptance,” he said. “Leveraging the data that’s contained in financial institutions can provide critical insight for our business customers about their customers.”

More specifically, businesses gain insight into a customer’s financial status – if it is a gaming wallet, it could reveal age, whether they have a gambling problem, or what their creditworthiness is. On top of that, customers get access to lower-cost payments.

“Many times those two go hand in hand – what are the key insights I need to know about this customer before I accept the payment? And on the cost-side, Open Banking payments are significantly cheaper than debit and credit cards, and wallets. It dramatically reduces the cost of accepting payments and settles more quickly, providing better liquidity for merchants.

He added that Token is also planning on going live with another institution relatively quickly. “One of every four credit cards in the United Kingdom will be able to be paid off with an Open Banking transfer through Token.”