
Pay by Bank Adoption Doubles as UK Retailers Embrace Open Banking at Checkout
Pay by Bank usage has more than doubled in the past year, with over 40 major UK retailers now offering the Open Banking payment method at online and in-store checkouts.
Payments Editor
Elena Marchetti is FinBlockDaily's payments specialist, covering open banking, card networks, and account-to-account payments across the UK and EU.

Pay by Bank usage has more than doubled in the past year, with over 40 major UK retailers now offering the Open Banking payment method at online and in-store checkouts.

Digital wallet transactions have overtaken physical card payments in UK retail for the first time, with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and retailer-branded wallets now accounting for 52% of in-store contactless spend.

The Confirmation of Payee system now covers 99 per cent of UK Faster Payments transactions, marking a milestone in the fight against misdirected payments and APP fraud.

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.

An independent review commissioned by HM Treasury has recommended consolidating oversight of the UK's payment clearing systems under a single body, replacing the current split between Pay.UK and the Bank of England.

Railsr, formerly Railsbank, has completed its corporate restructuring and relaunched with a sharpened focus on embedded B2B payments and cross-border treasury services for UK mid-market firms.

The European Commission's finalised PSD3 text introduces sweeping changes to payment services regulation that could force the UK to update its own framework to maintain cross-border interoperability.

New data from the European Payments Council shows the UK processes more real-time payment transactions per capita than any EU member state, with open banking-initiated payments now accounting for 12% of all Faster Payments volume.

French-British payroll platform PayFit has raised £85 million in a Series E round to deepen its embedded finance offering, including salary advances and pension auto-enrolment for UK small businesses.

A new report from UK Finance warns that account-to-account payments could capture up to 25 per cent of point-of-sale card volume by 2030, forcing card networks to rethink their pricing strategies.

The UK's Faster Payments system has surpassed one billion transactions in a single month for the first time, prompting Pay.UK to accelerate its New Payments Architecture programme amid capacity concerns.

A growing number of UK lenders are adopting open banking-based credit scoring models that look beyond traditional credit bureau data, potentially unlocking access for millions of underserved borrowers.

SumUp has launched its Tap to Pay on iPhone service across the UK, allowing sole traders and micro-merchants to accept contactless payments of up to £100 without any additional hardware.

London-based Open Banking infrastructure provider TrueLayer has closed a £130 million Series E round as it bets on Pay by Bank becoming the dominant checkout option across European e-commerce.

US payments giant Stripe has agreed to acquire London-based direct debit platform GoCardless for £2.1 billion, marking the largest cross-border fintech acquisition involving a UK target this year.

The UK's largest energy suppliers and broadband providers have begun accepting Variable Recurring Payments, marking a pivotal moment for Open Banking's push beyond one-off transactions.

London-based Checkout.com has signed payment processing deals with three major European airlines, including British Airways parent IAG, as it targets high-value verticals in an increasingly competitive acquiring market.

Wise has processed over £32 billion in cross-border transfers from UK accounts in the past quarter, marking a 41% year-on-year increase driven by freelancer payments and SME trade flows.

Open Banking payment volumes in the UK have reached a new milestone, with monthly transactions exceeding 12 million for the first time as consumer adoption accelerates.