By Elena Marchetti — Payments Editor
Amazon and eBay Launch 'Pay by Bank' in the UK, Marking Open Banking's Mainstream Breakthrough
Amazon and eBay have both launched Pay by Bank for UK customers via TrueLayer, allowing direct bank-account payments at checkout — a watershed moment for open banking adoption.
Amazon launched Pay by Bank for UK customers on 10 February 2026, partnering with open banking infrastructure provider TrueLayer to allow shoppers to pay directly from their bank accounts at checkout. Just nine days later, eBay followed suit with its own Pay by Bank integration, also powered by TrueLayer — and backed it with a strategic investment from eBay Ventures into the London-based fintech.
The mechanism works identically on both platforms: at checkout, customers select their bank, authenticate the payment through their banking app using biometric verification or PIN, and the funds move instantly via the UK's Faster Payments network. No card details are entered or stored. Amazon confirmed that Pay by Bank will soon extend to Prime subscription payments, while both platforms maintain their existing card, buy-now-pay-later, and digital wallet options alongside the new method.
The launches are being hailed as the moment open banking payments crossed from niche to mainstream. Open banking-powered payments grew 53% year-on-year throughout 2025, with over 16 million active users and 33 million payments processed in November 2025 alone. Variable recurring payments (VRPs) now account for over 15% of all open banking transactions.
However, a paradox has emerged: despite the payment volume surge, consumer awareness of the "Pay by Bank" brand has actually declined. A YouGov/Yaspa survey of 2,157 UK adults found that only 38% are familiar with the term in 2026, down sharply from 55% in 2025. The fragmented terminology — with providers variously calling it "instant bank transfer," "account-to-account," or "open banking" — is creating confusion.
Francesco Simoneschi, TrueLayer CEO, said: "By integrating directly into eBay's checkout, we're enabling instant, bank-auth payments at scale that allows merchants to benefit from a faster payment experience." The dual launches by two of the world's largest e-commerce platforms signal that account-to-account payments are no longer experimental — they are a core part of the UK's payment infrastructure.
