Source: Visa
Visa, a global leader in digital payments, is today announcing that its new pay by bank solution is ready for market in the UK. Built on Visa’s decades of payments expertise, Visa A2A gives consumers greater choice, control and protection over how they pay via bank transfers. It is designed to make pay by bank transactions — including bill and subscription payments— safer and smarter.
Visa A2A introduces an easy and intuitive experience for consumers, allowing them to easily manage their bills and subscriptions through their bank app. For the first time in the UK, it also introduces Visa’s best-in-class consumer protections to bank transfer transactions, including clear guidelines for consumers, businesses and banks on rights and responsibilities should things go wrong. This will effectively provide a similar level of protection typically associated with card payments, so consumers can get their money back if there is an error.
Visa A2A also benefits businesses, as near real-time settlement through Pay.UK’s Faster Payment System gives them greater visibility over payments and makes cash flow management simpler. Businesses can take advantage of the digital nature of Visa A2A, including notifications if a consumer changes or cancels payment permissions, and it also provides them with the ability to include more transaction data for reconciliation.
Visa A2A is based on an open model that will enable banks and other industry partners to join and extend Open Banking-enabled payments to businesses. With a commercial model designed to work for all participants in the ecosystem and to boost the UK fintech community, Visa A2A will help to unlock the full potential of Open Banking in the UK. Research from Innovate Finance indicates that advancing the UK’s fintech ecosystem – a key partner in the development and delivery of Visa A2A – could unlock £328 billion over the next five years.
Safer ecommerce
With an operational technology platform ready to process bills and subscriptions, Visa plans to expand Visa A2A, including ecommerce payments in the UK with a phased approach. This expansion means consumers choosing to use pay by bank across a variety of use cases, could benefit from similar levels of protection to those currently offered by card payments.
Visa A2A for ecommerce will offer a secure, hassle-free way to pay directly through bank accounts. Customers will be able to authorise this payment method once, then simply choose pay by bank at checkout for a one-click purchase experience that is fast, seamless and secure.
Mandy Lamb, managing director, Visa UK and Ireland, said: “The UK has spearheaded innovation in financial services for many years, and in light of increasing fraud and international competition, we must continue to lead the way.
“We are proud to be working with our partners to deliver a state-of-the-art pay by bank experience, coupled with Visa’s best-in-class consumer protections.
“Visa A2A is a game-changer – it means for the first time UK consumers and businesses using pay by bank will benefit from a similar level of protection typically associated with card payments.”
This is an abridged version of the press release.
Further reading: Visa to ‘upgrade’ Pay by Bank experience with UK launch of Visa A2A
