Retail

This year, Brits plan to spend an estimated £3.95 billion on Black Friday and Cyber Monday purchases 

. Although only taking-off in the UK in 2010, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become a nationwide tradition ahead of Christmas. But there’s a dark cloud that looms over the weekend for merchants and consumers alike… bots.

In 2021, bots and fake users made up 35.7% of all online shoppers on Black Friday [Source: 

Although originally a simple snippet of code to automate manual tasks, bots (and the people who code them) have evolved. 

Bots simulate the actions of real people clicking through an ecommerce site in order to purchase multiple or limited edition products. After selecting the items to buy, bots known as ‘scalpers’ automate the actual purchase. They log in to premade accounts or create a guest account and complete the order from a batch of cards. The people behind the bots then resell the products at a higher ticket price to turn a profit. 

How can merchants tackle bots this Black Friday? 

There are a few ways you can stop bad bots in their tracks: 

Here’s how Open Banking powered payments works: 

You're able to convert more customers with cardless checkouts, verify each customer with Strong Customer Authentication and biometric identification and  retain more revenue by eliminating chargebacks.

Show the bots who’s boss, add Open Banking to your checkout. Request a demo today. 

Beat the bots this Black Friday 

Bad bots, bad bots, whatcha you gonna do? Whatcha you gonna do when they come for you? 

Through The Grapevyne

Reuters announced a draft law by the European Commission 

which would require European banks to offer instant Euro credit payments.  

The draft states: ‘Payment service providers (PSPs) that provide credit transfers in euro will be required to offer the service of sending and receiving IPs in euro. The requirement would cover 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.’

Due to be published next week, PSPs across Europe will have six months to get ready to receive and a year to send instant euro payments. 

 Until now (fingers crossed) the means to instantly transfer money has not been mandated to the banks resulting in slow and costly transactions for merchants and consumers alike. For example, when making a card payment the funds won’t arrive in the merchants account for days.

Instant payments will be made universally available and no longer come at a premium cost. In most cases instant payments will be free of cost or as much as a regular SEPA credit transfer. So European merchants can save more on every transaction while receiving funds on the same day.

Karl MacGregor, Vyne CEO states: ‘The industry has been crying out for this news. The European Commission's initiative to make available instant euro payments will put more pressure on high-cost payment providers. Open Banking powered account-to-account payments accompanied by instant payments will bolster the position of challengers amongst established payment methods, ensuring every merchant and customer gets more competitive, instant payment experiences across Europe.’ 

But we mustn't get our hopes up, the EU has long sought to create competition in an incumbent dominated market to little or no end. For example, the European Payments Initiative hit troubles 

 Let’s hope this law breaks the bad history and cements the future of European payments. 

The US wants a bite of the Open Banking cake

On the infamous Money2020 USA main stage, Rohit Chopra, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director this week 

announced that the CFPB is publishing a proposed ‘more decentralised and neutral consumer financial market’ across the US. 

Chopra made it clear that this wasn’t to be a parallel of UK and European standards, ‘while not explicitly an Open Banking or open finance rule, the rule will move us closer to it, by obligating financial institutions to share consumer data upon consumer request, empowering people to break up with banks that provide bad service, and unleashing more market competition.’ But it’s a step in the right direction. 

 CFPB wants to enable consumers to access their own financial information, such as transactions and account information and share it with the businesses they trust. This will open up use cases such as account switching for utilities providers, account aggregation to manage all bank accounts in one place and affordability checks to truly understand what consumers can afford. 

As the US moves fashionably late into an Open Finance era, what can be learned from the UK to ensure that the CFPB’s goal becomes a reality?

 Karl MacGregor, Vyne CEO says: ‘The US are in an enviable position. They can learn from the mistakes the UK and Europe made. Regulatory applications shouldn’t be a barrier to entry. Banks should be held accountable to timelines. Both consumers and businesses should benefit from the legislation.’   

MacGregor continues: ‘The next logical step would be payment initiation. The US could beat the UK and EU by standardising and mandating repeat payments and subscriptions through consent and trust tokens to create seamless payment experiences. Thirty-six percent of UK Open Banking API calls are payment initiations with the demand for fast, cost-effective and secure payments only increasing in the minds of merchants and consumers. If the US captures the addressable market for repeat payments, they’ll be empowering businesses to bypass expensive payment methods and consumers to easily remain in control of their outgoing recurring payments.

Another benefit of extending this rule to payments is that it would level the payments field creating more competition against exorbitant scheme and interchange fees that US businesses and consumers have been forced to carry for decades. Businesses will be able to retain more cash and increase cash flow, while consumers get seamless, more secure payment experiences.’ 

Good luck CFPB, we’re rooting for you. 

Want to see how Open Banking powered account-to-account payments can empower your business? 

Ep 7: Europe gets instant payments and the US wants a bite of the Open Banking cake 

It's been a bumper week for payments and Open Banking news out of Europe and the US. Let's get stuck in.

Automotive

With a number of Open Banking providers in the market, it’s important to pick the right

one to ensure you’re partnering with a winner. We’ve put together a checklist of questions to ask when evaluating providers to make sure you’re getting exactly what you and your customers need.

Let’s start with the basics. Are they a legitimate provider? 

Before you spend even a moment engaging with a potential Open Banking payments provider you need to check the basics: 

When you’ve narrowed down your list, ask the following questions to ensure you’re engaging with a regulated, professional and high-performing provider. 

Experience matters. Are they payments experts?

Payments are a critical business function and the company you entrust to process them needs to be experienced, reputable and trust-worthy. Don’t settle for less than experts. Dig into the leadership team experience and the founding story, make sure they’re not chancers looking for a quick win and ensure you’re working with a team who knows payments inside out. 

Have they built a full payments product suite for Automotive?

Open Banking alone doesn’t provide the necessary payments functionality to enhance business operations within your dealership and online. To make sure you’re getting a holistic product qualify that potential providers have built the following product functionality: 

Settlement accounts are an additional but fundamental part of an Open Banking payments product suite. Check with your provider that they offer settlement accounts to make batch settlement, refunds and reconciliation easier.

Will you get the support team for success?

Be sure to ask what support team you’ll be working with. You should have a dedicated commercial lead, integrations manager and customer success lead. Check what support hours are available to you, if they provide out of hours support and emergency SLAs. 

Have they got all of the regulatory necessities? 

Potentially boring for some but crucial to have. There are a number of processes that providers need to ensure they are abiding by the FCA Handbook to act as a legitimate financial institution. Tick off the list below:

Your provider should be happy to answer any questions you have, and be as honest and transparent as possible. At Vyne, we’ll be happy to walk you through each step of the customer journey, and find the right fit for Open Banking in your dealerships.

Ready to start accepting fairer, faster and more secure payments in your dealership and online? 

The complete Open Banking checklist for Automotive

You’ve decided you want to start taking account-to-account payments using Open Banking so you can offer your customers a more seamless and secure way to pay online and in your dealerships. What’s next?

Announcement 

a commercial and technological partnership with Vyne, the specialist account-to-account (A2A) payments platform.

This new partnership will provide greater choice for merchants who use the BR-DGE platform, optimising the merchant and consumer payment experience. BR-DGE merchants will benefit from Vyne’s Open Banking solution, which allows payments via bank transfer at a low cost for merchants. Each payment made through Vyne is also automatically Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) compliant, dramatically reducing the risk of fraud for customers and merchants while eliminating chargebacks, all without impacting conversion. 

Through a single point of integration, BR-DGE’s merchants can access a world of payment providers, anti-fraud capabilities and alternative payment methods (APMs). Leveraging Vyne’s Open Banking powered payments solution, BR-DGE’s merchants will be able to reduce transaction fees and improve conversion rates and cash flow. 

Vyne's full stack solution enables merchants to receive customer funds instantly and further offer the ability to process full and partial refunds in real-time, as well as pay-outs and batched settlement with full reconciliation. The Secure Customer Authentication (SCA) embedded payment process will help to improve merchant checkout conversions by offering a seamless user experience via different channels, including online checkouts, payment by SMS, chat or email, and QR codes.

The collaboration will stimulate growth for both businesses as BR-DGE and Vyne innovate to improve the merchant and consumer payment experience. It builds on BR-DGE recently announcing a merchant partnership with leading independent travel company, Travel Counsellors. Vyne's solution recently went live with a number of brands in the THG portfolio, including Myprotein, Glossybox, and Pop In A Box.

Commenting on the partnership, Tom Voaden, Strategic Partnership Lead at BR-DGE, said

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Vyne to enhance our payment offering to both merchants and their customers. At BR-DGE, we understand the immense benefits of Open Banking and are leveraging its power to provide a frictionless payment experience for all. 

This latest partnership with Vyne further solidifies our Open Banking capabilities and ensures that our merchants continue to have access to the most convenient and secure payment solutions available. It also presents brilliant opportunities for both firms as we continue our journey of growth.”

Luke Flomo, Chief Revenue Officer at Vyne, added:

“Merchants should be able to enhance their payments proposition easily, without strenuous development. BR-DGE enables merchants to seamlessly add payment methods through a single, simple integration. By adding Vyne’s Open-Banking-powered Pay with Bank to BR-DGE’s ecosystem, more merchants will be able to benefit from fairer fees, increased conversion and real-time cash flow. Our partnership with BR-DGE is an exciting move in our wider partnership's strategy.”

Vyne partners with BR-DGE to improve merchant and consumer payment experience

Partnership between payment orchestration provider, BR-DGE, and account-to-account payments platform, Vyne, will secure greater choice for merchants, optimising the user experience and providing a higher level of security via biometric verification.

Announcement

Vyne, the specialist account-to-account payments platform, today announces that in a global first, leading automotive retailer Pendragon PLC will offer its account-to-account payment method as the first and preferred payment method both in-dealership and in the future online. The partnership will introduce Vyne’s account-to-account payment capabilities to Pendragon’s automotive brands, including Evans Halshaw, Stratstone and CarStore.

Based on Open Banking technology, the integration between Vyne and Pendragon eliminates the need for manual bank transfers, which can be prone to manual errors due to a more involved user experience. As account-to-account payments are instant, it also enables customers to make a deposit and/or leave with their vehicle on the same day, easing the experience of purchasing a car and increasing dealership conversion rates. 

The first stage of the partnership will involve in-showroom account-to-account payments being offered by all Pendragon brands including Evans Halshaw, Stratstone and Carstore dealerships in Q3 2022 - the first implementation of in-dealership open banking payments being offered by an automotive brand globally.  When a customer is ready to make a deposit, the sales team will initiate a payment link to the customer, who can then make the deposit payment directly from their phone while at the dealership or later from the comfort of their own home if they prefer.

The second stage of Vyne and Pendragon’s partnership will see Vyne’s account-to-account payments technology rolled out across all Pendragon owned automotive websites in Q3 2022.

Pendragon’s Chief Executive Officer, Bill Berman commented

 “We’re excited to be the first automotive brand in the world to offer account-to-account payments in dealerships. Innovation is at the heart of our business and we remain committed to transforming automotive retail through digital innovation. By working with Vyne to enable customers to seamlessly make instant deposits, we continue to enhance the experience of purchasing a vehicle for the hundreds of thousands of customers we welcome every year, as well as, reduce our own operational costs.” 

Founded by true payments experts, Vyne’s innovative technology brings together decades of combined industry experience to deliver direct, highly secure, instant payments. The full-stack account-to-account solution enables Pendragon PLC to effectively manage payments, including full and partial refund functionality and automated reconciliation and notifications. By offering account-to-account payments, Pendragon’s brands can bypass card networks and their associated fees, reducing costs and accelerating cash flow with instant settlement.

Karl MacGregor, CEO and Co-founder, Vyne, adds: 

“Pendragon’s position as one of the largest and most influential automotive retailers in the UK makes this partnership a significant milestone in account-to-account payments adoption. We’re delighted that household name brands like Evans Halshaw and Stratstone have selected Vyne’s account-to-account payments as their preferred payment method, both in-showroom and online, and expect further adoption in the automotive sector to follow.”

To support sales teams across the group with the rollout, Pendragon has collaborated with Vyne to develop a rich online training program. Vyne will also provide ongoing support as needed to  drive further awareness and adoption of Open Banking payments.

First in-store Open Banking payments for automotive sector launched by Vyne and Pendragon

Vyne’s account-to-account payment method to be offered as first and preferred payment method by leading motor retailer, with 60% adoption anticipated in first 12 months.

This partnership enables Cybersource merchants across the UK and Europe to integrate to Vyne’s Pay with bank payment solution, meaning faster, fairer, and safer payment flows between merchants and consumers’ bank accounts.

With a focus on preventing fraud and ensuring payment security, Cybersource processes £360 billion worth of transactions. Vyne adds to Cybersource’s current proposition with seamless integrations for merchants, giving them lower processing fees, faster settlements, and improved customer experience.

Karl MacGregor, CEO at Vyne, said: “Cybersource is rightly considered one of the founding fathers of online payment and fraud management services and we are genuinely thrilled to offer Open Banking powered Pay with bank to their clients. We believe the benefits of Pay with bank represents a real step change for merchants - including empowering business growth by reducing costs, increasing payment acceptance and accelerating cash-flow.”

Vyne’s consumer research report into digital payments ranked security as the most important thing to consider when choosing a new payment method, followed by convenience and speed. Our full-stack payment solution eliminates the need for manual input of card details, removes the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security) burden on merchants, whilst increasing security and speeding up the checkout experience, which in turn reduces cart abandonment.

In June 2022, Open Banking Ltd announced that the industry had reached 

6 million consumers gaining 1 million in just four short months

. To reach this milestone the Open Banking ecosystem made a record 1 billion API calls in the month of May. Open Banking is growing exponentially, and it won’t be slowing down any time soon. 

Reasons to get excited about Vyne x CyberSource

If you’d like to add Vyne to your Cybersource platform integration, reach out to your Cybersource account manager.

Vyne and Cybersource partner to offer open banking payments

We’re excited to announce that Cybersource has partnered with Vyne as an Open Banking account-to-account (A2A) payments provider. For Vyne, this represents a significant step in our efforts to increase the global footprint of our offering. 

Partnerships

In the last six months at Vyne, we've seen adoption growing at a blistering pace, with the share of checkout in some verticals as high as 60%.

Consumer adoption will rely heavily on the education of account-to-account (A2A) payments via Open Banking, and the key to this is a partner ecosystem that’s built on trust, transparency, and ultimately, delivering the best possible solutions to merchants.

A big part of what we're trying to achieve at Vyne is the building of an ecosystem of partners that’s a strong cultural fit with like-minded organisations supporting each other to deliver combined value to merchants and consumers. 

There might not always be a technical join-up between our two products, or perhaps there’s no need for our products to connect, but from a partner perspective, there needs to be a shared vision and appreciation for the value that each organisation can deliver to the other’s respective client base. 

A community must be made up of trusted partnerships. We need to feel confident that if we have a client looking for services offered by one of our partners, we can recommend them knowing they’ll be able to deliver on those services and that this confidence is reciprocated. 

A core component of our partner-first approach is finding and working with organisations that allow us to be where our merchants are, delivering combined value and tangible benefits to all parties. These can range from large platforms offering core solutions at scale, helping merchants succeed in what is progressively becoming a more difficult economic environment, to niche-technology-solution providers focused on making an impact in core verticals by solving business issues related to payment acceptance, as well as consultancies and agencies helping to deploy bespoke solutions specific to merchant needs. 

Working with our partners, we look to share knowledge and leverage market expertise to ensure we understand the requirements and are combining our efforts to deliver meaningful  propositions that will have an impact. 

For example, in the small business space,  SMBs and SMEs, who run their businesses off their own backs, are finding the current economic climate tough. We understand they need assistance now more than ever to drive cost efficiencies while maximising consumer engagement and experience.

, and besides the benefits of Open Banking powered payments, we’ve launched an industry-first self-service onboarding solution. Wix is fantastic if you want to have your own ecommerce store, and we continue to develop solutions to enable our partners and their core client base to easily access our solution via these platforms. 

We also know that large organisations are constantly trading off innovation versus resource constraints and core-product maintenance while continuing to adapt to an ever changing economic landscape. Here again we have the same mindset and understand that they still need to innovate and grow their businesses while managing costs associated with payments and consumer experience and loyalty. 

, we’ve worked together to add value to their existing proposition, which means that they can continue to be an innovative player in the market and continue to offer new services to their client base without having to divert too many of their resources away from their core proposition to focus on a complex integration. This means we are able to quickly bring a pre-integrated solution to market while focusing our combined efforts on educating merchants and consumers on the benefits of A2A payments via Open Banking. 

It’s imperative to have a partner who sees the value and has the same mindset of wanting to drive adoption at scale. Our relationships with partners such as Purchase Direct, 

, Calyx and RemitOne, to name a few, are  about integrating and deploying  simple and readily available solutions that solve business issues and enable growth.  Understanding that the true power of Open Banking goes far beyond checkout is key for us and our partners. 

If we look at the automotive industry in particular, our aim has always been to have an end-to-end Open Banking proposition built to provide the best consumer experience possible but at the same time ensuring that behind the scenes, we help partners and their merchants become trusted advisors. We do this by providing open access to our knowledge of payments and Open Banking while ensuring we are transparent and upfront about best practices to ensure that we collectively deliver accurate and consistent messaging via our Partner ecosystem.

The aim for us is to help our partners bring a proposition to market that drives efficiency and optimises payments. The result is not only an Open Banking solution that drives massive change and delivers benefits to mutual clients but also adoption at scale across the market, benefiting all.

Interested in empowering business growth with account-to-account payments? 

Partnership ecosystems will drive Open Banking adoption

We’ve seen the scale of Open Banking adoption pick up pace this year. If we want to enter the next phase of rapid adoption for both merchants and consumers, working closely with partners to create an ecosystem will be key. 

Pendragon give car buyers new payment option with Pinewood DMS and Vyne Open Banking

Vyne’s account-to-account payment method to be offered by leading global dealer management system, Pinewood DMS, in-store and online.

Vyne, the specialist account-to-account payments platform, today announces that it has been selected to deliver Open Banking payments to 

, one of the leading global solutions for automotive dealer management. Vyne is now integrated with Pinewood DMS – providing dealers with an instant payment addition to their digital omnichannel offering.

The integration between Vyne and Pinewood eliminates the need for manual bank transfers by leveraging Open Banking Technology. Although a common payment method in the UK automotive industry, manual bank transfers can offer a poor user experience prone to manual errors, especially when compared to account-to-account payments, which can be completed securely in as little as three clicks on a consumer’s smartphone.

In addition, as account-to-account payments are settled in real-time, Pinewood’s integration with Vyne enables customers to make a deposit and leave with their vehicle on the same day. For consumers, this enhances the experience of purchasing a new vehicle, and for dealers, this increases conversion rates.

Pendragon PLC is one of the UK's leading automotive retailers, serving hundreds of thousands of customers online and in-dealership every year. Pendragon’s brands can now bypass card networks and their associated fees by offering Vyne’s payment solution, which reduces costs and accelerates cash flow with instant settlement.

Vyne’s innovative technology eliminates intermediaries while improving the consumer experience – providing faster, simpler, cost-effective payments. By integrating Vyne into Pinewood DMS, automotive dealerships will be able to offer Vyne’s full-stack account-to-account payment solution to all customers, initially through in-store payment operations and in future on their websites.   

 Vyne integration in Pinewood DMS is available now to all Pinewood customers.

Vyne partners with Pinewood

Pinewood and Vyne drive Open Banking adoption in automotive sector

Ep 5: The one where UK fraud levels send out shockwaves and we’re dreaming of a winter wedding between social commerce and Open Banking

 recently shared data that UK consumers are more likely to be hit by card fraud and suffer higher losses than their European counterparts.  

Remember 2019? Those pre pandemic days when someone would cough and you wouldn't run away and almost fall into a bush or walk into a pole? 😳 Well, data from then showed that there were 

 people in the UK at a cost of over £8,800.

To put some seasoning on the data, 84% were the result of card-not-present fraud (CNP). Not quite Tinder swindler, but fraudsters use card details without the physical card in phishing and malware scams.  In contrast, Germany's fraud cost was under 

 letter by the SMF to the UK government, they said: “ Britain’s shocking record on card fraud compared to major European economies is yet another reminder of how UK law enforcement has failed to keep up with the epidemic.” 😭

What's the difference between the UK and Germany? Could it be influenced by payment culture, type of fraud, dominant payment method or prevalence of scams? SMH believes that in the UK, "the entire fraud enforcement landscape 

". A positive is that the SCA mandate was rolled out in the UK earlier this year after a delay, so it will be interesting to see the CNP numbers for this year. A negative, however, is that the cost-of-living crisis will likely push fraud through the roof with more sophisticated scams by fraudsters. 🤔

Earlier this month, the government announced the launch of a

’. Sadly, it’s not aimed at tackling CNP and other card fraud but rather to “hunt down fraud committed against the public purse”.  😳

Open Banking is here, and it delivers a solution to fraud. Built into the payment flow without sacrificing customer experience, it has a far superior method of payment when it comes to security. Open Banking has bank-level security built into its technology. Payments are made directly from the customer's bank account to the merchant's bank account, with no details ever being shared. CNP fraud is prevented by strong customer authentication that requires customers to authenticate payments through fingerprint (touch ID) or facial recognition (face ID), which only they can authorise.

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi recently tried Open Banking payment too  ….  Open Banking has truly arrived. @

UKgov et al … tell your friends to get with our friends! P.S You’re welcome! 

We’re dreaming of a winter wedding between social commerce and Open Banking

Who can remember a time when social media was just about the odd photo album and status updates? No filters, just vanilla lives trying to be cookies and cream. Over the last decade, we’ve seen social media grow from what seemed to be an awkward yet cool teenager to become an integrated platform businesses can use as a tool to grow brand awareness, discover new audiences and make more money than before. It’s the weapon of choice for retailers and entrepreneurs. 

A tag is no longer a tag but an entry into a kaleidoscope of new sales, and an image is a carefully curated, highly executed vehicle to convert and drive sales. It’s closed the gap between towering retail giants and pushed more sales down to entrepreneurs and small businesses. This world of social commerce has turned everyone into a brand, an influencer or an entrepreneur. 

We’ve gone from instore to e-commerce then to Instashops and TikTok live selling. Sales, sales, sales – for anyone and everyone who is willing to put effort into their audiences, deliver great customer service and have an overall fantastic product. Social commerce has proven to be a convenient way to shop as customers can do everything from within a social media app. These shoppable posts are more connected, personal and community-driven experiences. 

It’s what happens when a steroid goes on steroids. 

It comes as no surprise that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that 

 will soon be able to use their new “payments in chat” feature.  Building on the in-app experience, Instagram users will be able to buy products from and track orders via direct messages. 

This is everything Open Banking is perfectly suited for, and hopefully in the future, alternative payment methods to Paypal, which is used by Instagram and the giant that is Meta, can all step in. 

Ep 5: UK fraud levels and the social commerce opportunity 

Each month we weigh in on hot topics, buy-outs, new mandates, latest tech buzz and sometimes even news teetering on bizarre. We bring together voices from the industry to share insight and shed light on what’s happening in the world of fintech.

New product

When customers use Vyne to make a payment, some banks will retain the bank account and sort code details of your settlement account available for them to view in their banking app.

This would make it possible for them to bypass Vyne and send funds straight to your account.

This reduces your visibility of the transaction, adding more work to your plate to stay up to date. It’s our mission to make the entire payments process seamless, and this update ensures reporting and reconciliation remain this way.

If a customer tries to make a payment directly to your settlement account, it will be immediately returned to that customer. When the payment is returned to the customer, it will include the reference “REJECTED” on their bank statement. The payment will appear in your settlement account statement showing a rejected status. 

To avoid any disruptions when topping up your settlement account, you need to make sure the bank account listed in the portal matches the account making top ups. For merchants, you can check by clicking on Account and then Bank Account. For partners, this is under Merchants and then Bank Account. To add a different bank account, please contact support with proof of ownership.

If you have any questions or want more information on how we can help you with our other products, 

More control over your settlement account

From today, we are rolling out an update to block direct payments into settlement accounts to ensure merchants continue to benefit from seamless reconciliation and reporting.

SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have had to endure a rough few years and are being pushed even further with rising inflation, the energy crisis and for some, supply chain issues. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the 

 Network’s (CFN) SME Recovery Tracker recently found that 

 in London alone are predicted to go under during the next year due to these hard economic conditions.  

But what if payments could be used as a tool SMEs could leverage to help with better cash flow, lower transaction fees, to provide much-needed instant settlement, and to deliver higher brand and customer sentiment?  

Leveraging the right payment method can provide SMEs with an opportunity to meet the needs of customers in a digital-first world but more importantly use revolutionary tech advancements in payments as a tool to boost various parts of the business. 

This revolution in the payments sector comes courtesy of Open Banking, which was set up by the Competition and Markets Authority in 2018 and mandates the top banks in the UK to provide it to their customers. This transformation sees outdated technology and processes replaced with alternative payment methods aimed at seamless journeys that can contribute to the profitability of the businesses.

Account-to-account payments (A2A) methods are powered by Open Banking, which sees customers pay directly from their bank account straight to the merchant. For the business, this means the customer is who they say they are. 

A2A payments cut out traditional intermediates such as cards, which results in lower transaction costs, faster settlement, heightened security, and a superior user experience for customers.

Debit and credit card transaction costs can range between 0.3% to 4% and can affect your bottom line. Deposits on high-value items can also be capped, meaning they can be moved to manual bank transfers, which can be riddled with human error. 

Account-to-Account - Transaction costs  

Businesses can save on transaction fees by using Vyne’s Pay with bank. Research by 

 found that SME online retailers could save over £19,000 a month in transaction fees by using A2A payment. 

 gives SMEs the benefits of lower fees and instant settlement. Wix merchants receive a 30-day free trial after which they are charged a £25 monthly fee with a reduced cost for each transaction. 

With credit and debit card transactions, businesses are forced to wait days or even weeks for funds to settle.  This in turn puts pressure on cash flow and supplier management. Business lender 

 found that in Q1 2022, 37% of SMEs in London and South East England cited cash flow as a major concern. 

With A2A payments, funds settle instantly, giving businesses the ability to have an accurate, real-time grip on cash flow and a reduction in chargebacks. 

Fraud is a major concern to businesses. Card-not-present fraud (CNP) is a type of fraud which takes place during online transactions when the person or the card is not physically present.  

  reported that CNP fraud added up to 85% of all card fraud in 2021.

A2A payments use strong customer authentication, which means customers use authentication on their own mobile device and their banks' own security management to complete each purchase.  This means the purchaser is who they say they are. No card details or information are ever shared. 

Card payments are fraught with friction. From locating your card to entering the 16 digit code, card payment journeys are outdated and can result in abandoned carts. Almost 

Vyne’s Pay with bank payment flows are seamless allowing customers to pay in as little as three taps. Merchants are able to increase their customer conversion and provide customers the option to pay online (mobile or desktop), via QR codes, and instalment payment links. 

Now more than ever, SMEs have the power to choose payment methods that can either boost or hinder their businesses. Alternative payment methods such as A2A payments powered by Open Banking, put the power back into the hands of SMEs with a plethora of wide ranging benefits from customer sentiment to cost saving and lower transaction fees. 

Cards vs Open Banking for SMEs

Leveraging the right payment method can provide SMEs with an opportunity to meet the needs of customers in a digital-first world

Case Study

Vyne’s onboarding including KYB and integration delivers deployed client accounts within 12 hours for Purchase Direct

is a cost-reduction consultancy whose main customer base is in the automotive sector, but their portfolio also covers agriculture, doctors’ surgeries, and other businesses. For over 27 years, they have provided outsourced procurement services to businesses requiring long-term management and control of their overhead purchasing. 

A major concern for Purchase Direct was to help their clients eliminate high-cost processing charges, especially in the automotive trade. As things become more challenging due to economic uncertainty and hundreds or thousands of pounds taken for every card payment, card fees ultimately eat into profits.  

Consumer behaviour has changed, with more wanting easy transactions, especially when buying online, and being able to make paying as seamless as possible is crucial. Purchase Direct also wanted an Open Banking provider that would echo their company’s ethos and would work with them to implement a scalable cost-effective solution. 

Unlike other companies during the pandemic, Purchase Direct saw the need for their services to grow, with clients looking to cut costs at every angle. They also saw consumers demanding more flexibility and a streamlined approach when they pay. 

Purchase Direct knew that their clients needed a cost-effective and innovative solution that could make a difference immediately. Delivering this puts the reins firmly and swiftly into Purchase Direct’s hands so they can onboard their clients and get them ready to reap the benefits Open Banking delivers. Vyne removes traditional intermediaries, which means their clients can take advantage of a reduction in card processing fees with the added benefit that security is also heightened.  

Vyne were also able to help them match the change in consumer behaviour by giving automotive dealers an enhanced payment experience that increases sentiment.

With the added benefit of settlement accounts, a bespoke build in our Merchant portal solution, Purchase Direct clients were also able to benefit from a more streamlined and effortless way to manage their finances. 

Right from the start of Vyne’s relationship with Purchase Direct, scaling and expanding across their business has enabled all clients and their sectors to benefit.

Onboarding speed

Purchase Direct x Vyne

The partnership will give Wix’s UK based merchants access to Vyne’s open banking payments infrastructure, enabling them to offer their customers the ability to pay directly from their mobile banking app.

With seamless eCommerce now fundamental to successful retail, this partnership will give Wix’s merchants in the UK access to Vyne's full stack pay with bank payment solutions, including receiving consumer funds, instant full and partial refunds, payouts, batched settlement with full reconciliation, and more. The frictionless payment process will help to improve merchant checkout conversions by offering a seamless UX via different channels, including online checkout, payment by SMS, chat or email, and QR codes for static or dynamic payment content - all enabling consumers to make payments in as little as three clicks.

In addition, as a result of extensive in-house development work, Vyne is offering Wix merchants in the UK market-leading auto-onboarding - allowing merchants to sign up and complete the Know Your Business (KYB) process in a matter of minutes. This saves merchants valuable hours and allows them to rapidly start reaping the benefits of open banking.

Once approved, merchants also have access to Vyne’s merchant portal, featuring advanced reporting capabilities, as well as enabling merchants to filter transactions, make refunds, check payment statuses, reconcile payments, and settle funds to their bank account.

Vyne uses open banking to move money in real time between bank accounts, bypassing long-established, outdated card networks and their associated fees. By eliminating the need for traditional card rails, Vyne enables merchants to pull payments directly from a customer's bank account to make payments more secure and efficient. Vyne’s infrastructure also simplifies merchant operations by offering automated reconciliation as standard.

Vyne partners with Wix

Vyne, the specialist pay with bank account-to-account (A2A) payments platform, today launches its SME proposition via a new partnership with Wix, a leading global SaaS platform to create, manage and grow an online presence. 

We understand it’s often a struggle for merchants to distribute funds fast whilst keeping costs low. We’ve made it our mission to make payouts fast, fair and seamless, and we’re pleased to be rolling this out to merchants and partners with a payout use case.

Merchants and partners will need to get in touch with our commercial team to understand if they meet the criteria for payouts. If approved, merchants and partners will be able to issue funds to customers instantly via API. To ensure the security of both merchants and their customers, a payment must first be made by the customer using Vyne to make them eligible to receive a payout. The payout is not limited by the amount paid in, once the customer’s identity has been confirmed.

End customers benefit from instant funds in their bank account, removing the slow processing speed as often is the case with traditional payment methods. As the funds are only sent to verified accounts, merchants can be confident that funds will safely arrive to the intended customer.

High-value consumers’ payment preferences unpacked

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High-value consumers’ payment preferences unpacked

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