Hargreaves Lansdown extends Ecospend’s Pay by Bank solution to every client

UK-based investment and savings platform Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) is making Ecospend’s Pay by Bank solution available to its ISA and general investment account clients, having processed more than £850 million in payments to its ‘Active Savings’ accounts since May 2023.

Where available through Hargreaves Lansdown, Ecospend’s Pay by Bank now accounts for 30% of payment volumes.

Open Banking technology provider Ecospend, which is owned by Trustly, provides a solution that helps clients of HL make payments directly into their HL accounts without the need for cards.

Payments are authorised through the client’s chosen online banking service – either in app or via a website – and, typically, using biometric ID.

HL has also reported a reduction in reconciliation costs, given that payment references are auto-populated, thereby removing all manual aspects of the transfer for HL.

“It’s excellent to see the tangible benefits that account-to-account payments can bring to a business such as Hargreaves Lansdown,” said James Hickman, Ecospend’s chief commercial officer.

He added: “We’re proud to provide a solution which helps drive efficiency and improves the overall customer experience.

“As a natural replacement for card payments, and a response to changing consumer behaviour and digital adoption, we’re excited to see further benefits realised when the solution is rolled out to every HL client.”

George Rodgers, lead product manager at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Our partnership with Ecospend has proved to be a great success so far, with Pay by Bank now accounting for 30% of payment volumes where available.

“As a result, we’re now live on mobile and rolling this payment method out to our entire ISA, SIPP and general investment account range, to continue providing solutions that make the payment journey faster, easier for clients, reduce fraud risk and, also, help improve business efficiency.”

Ecospend was selected by HL to provide its private investor clients with a Pay by Bank service back in 2022.

At the time, Rodgers called its adoption of Open Banking “a key milestone in our digital transformation strategy”.

Earlier this month, Ecospend revealed it has become the first Open Banking provider to be accepted onto the Crown Commercial Services’ new Open Banking Dynamic Purchasing System.