Tink unveils ‘Balance Check’ feature powered by Open Banking

European Open Banking platform Tink has launched an Open Banking-powered feature, ‘Balance Check’, to enable its business customers to verify account balances.

The new feature uses real-time account data to simplify the setting up and onboarding of direct debit mandates.

Using Balance Check, Tink’s business customers can verify how much a user has in their bank account in seconds, either at pre-purchase to ensure there are sufficient funds, or post-purchase to check for sufficient funds prior to a monthly direct debit collection.

Tink’s Tom Pope

Tom Pope, head of payments and platforms at Tink, said that insufficient funds is the number one source of failed direct debit payments, resulting in lost revenue and fees for both the business and consumer.

According to analysis by Tink, payment failures increase the average cost of direct debit transactions to a UK merchant by 15 to 20 times.

“By using real-time data directly from the user’s bank account, Balance Check protects businesses by reducing the risk of non-payment, while also protecting consumers from missed payments and penalty fees – which will be fundamental as the cost of living rises,” he added.

Balance Check will launch in the UK, Sweden, France, Germany, Netherlands and Italy, initially, before being rolled out more widely across Europe in 2023.

In August, Tink launched ‘Expense Check’ to provide lenders with access to real-time data to improve the accuracy of customer affordability assessments.

Then, in October, Tink teamed up with money-saving app Snoop to provide UK consumers with insights on how to cut their bills, pay off debt and save money amid the cost-of-living crisis.