Brite Payments launches Pay by Bank in the UK amid growing checkout frustration

Source: Words+Pixels / Brite Payments

As Brite Payments brings its cross-border Pay by Bank service to the UK after securing its Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), new research from the European payments leader reveals just how much of a toll checkout chaos is having on British merchants and consumers.

A survey of 2,000 UK adults, conducted by market research firm Appinio on behalf of Brite Payments, found that almost half (47%) of shoppers suffer checkout rage when shopping online, with one in six having sworn and shouted at the screen. Almost a quarter (24%) have avoided a purchase altogether because of returns anxiety, with 15% admitting to buying less so less money would be tied up if they needed a refund.

Checkout chaos costing merchants

For some Brits, a bad checkout experience is enough for them to end a relationship with a merchant entirely: almost one in five (19%) said they’d actively blacklist a retailer with poor payment options, and 17% admitted to warning their friends and family away from certain retailers, extending the reputational damage further.

Elsewhere in the findings, almost a quarter (23%) said they’ve abandoned a purchase entirely to avoid finding their physical card, with the average Brit losing an hour a year filling in checkout forms. Scale that across the UK’s banked adult population and it becomes the equivalent of losing over 55 million hours – or more than 6,400 years – on unnecessary payment admin every year.

The friction doesn’t ease once a shopper has entered their details, either. A quarter (25%) of shoppers have had a payment fail due to an input error, an expired card or a security check glitch; friction that causes just under one in 10 shoppers to switch to another retailer for an easier experience.

Six years in the making

Brite Payments has spent the past six years proving that a faster, more convenient online payment solution exists. Since launching its Pay by Bank business in 2019, the company has built a network connecting more than 3,800 banks across 27 European markets to simplify the instant payment and payout experience, a key driver in combating checkout rage and returns anxiety that shoppers report today.

With its UK operating licence, the company will begin a phased product roll out, bringing that same proven technology and expertise to British merchants and consumers. Through a single API integration, UK businesses will be able to accept Pay by Bank payments both domestically and across Brite Payments’ European network, all without having to juggle local providers, deal with legacy contracts or wait on slow settlement times.

The launch also comes at a time when more than 60% of shoppers from the Brite Payments survey say they’d rather use a payment provider that isn’t at risk of disruption caused by problems in another country, and 58% would actively choose a UK or European company over an overseas alternative.

Connecting Europe through faster payments

The UK has more Open Banking users than almost anywhere in Europe, over 15 million and rising. Brite Payments’ survey shows that knowledge of Pay by Bank is high, with 76% of Brits saying they were familiar with it. Yet its infrastructure has failed to keep up because enterprise merchants keep hitting the same operational ceiling.

Many legacy account-to-account (A2A) providers were built to serve a single market and, as such, struggle with fragmented technical standards between markets, inconsistent settlement times, and support infrastructure that shows the cracks as soon as transaction volumes and geographic complexity increase.

Brite Payments has arrived to challenge this status quo.

“The UK is one of the most mature Open Banking markets in the world, but it’s been dominated by overseas card networks and reliance on legacy providers built for a single market. Both merchants and consumers are not just losing out, but are actively impacted, as our survey results show,” said Lena Hackelöer, founder and chief executive officer of Brite Payments.

“Today’s launch is an exciting moment in a post-Brexit world, as UK merchants can easily start offering Pay by Bank to their local customers and customers across Europe, enabling their expansion internationally.”

Brite Payments founder and chief executive officer Lena Hackelöer will be speaking at Open Banking Expo UK & Europe 2026, taking place on 13-14 October at the Business Design Centre in London. Click here to find out more.

Further reading: Brite Payments reports surge in donor conversion through Open Banking