For forward-thinking business owners, adopting Open Banking infrastructure is essential.While it might be still a relatively new term, even small businesses started to embrace it. A recent survey by Ipsos MORI says 50% of small businesses are using open banking-powered services and surprisingly, COVID-19 was the driving force here. So what’s behind Open Banking that’s so innovative and inspiring? What’s the state of the industry at the age of mid (or post) pandemic reality? We interviewed experts among Open Banking providers, Token, in the special entry called Partners to Follow!
Straal: Can you tell us about your journey to create Token.io?
Todd Clyde, CEO at Token: As pioneers in Open Banking, Token predicted that widespread API availability would create an inflexion point for A2A payments*, enabling them to cross over from an alternative to a mainstream form of payment. Today, Token is driving the shift from card to bank payments with best-in-class, Pan-European bank connectivity, data and compliance capabilities.
“At Token, we believe the momentum to the adoption of open banking APIs and A2A payments is unstoppable.”
Todd Clyde, CEO at Token
S: What’s the company’s target market and the biggest challenges rightnow?
T.C: With Token’s complete open banking payments toolkit, the best and brightest merchants, PSPs and banks create new capabilities and revenue streams through our broadest, Pan-European connectivity to over 3,000 banks.
At Token, we believe the momentum to the adoption of open banking APIs and A2A payments is unstoppable. However, we recognise that key challenges remain for Token, our peers, and regulators in the UK and Europe. Namely, issues like API stability and reliability in Europe, consumer protection, and dispute management. Work is already well underway at all levels to make progress on these issues by shaping and implementing related standards and best practices.
S: What are the plans for the future development of Token?
T.C: Merchant-initiated payments, automated sweeps*, and request-to-pay. And that’s just the beginning!
“Over three million UK people and businesses are using open banking as of the beginning of 2021. One in five UK adults started using open banking powered apps during lockdown, while over half of Britons (54%) now say they now use them regularly”
Todd Clyde, CEO at Token.io
S: Given the unusual circumstances (COVID-19), how has the epidemic influenced your business? Any unusual steps to adjust to the ’new normal’?
T.C: In the past several years, we’ve observed an unprecedented level of collaboration amongst banks, regulators, fintechs, consumer advocates, and third-party providers like Token to make Open Banking a reality. Collectively and individually, our pace of progress has been accelerated by the pandemic. In fact, over three million UK people and businesses are using Open Banking as of the beginning of 2021. One in five UK adults started using Open Banking powered apps during lockdown, while over half of Britons (54%) now say they now use them regularly. Token has felt the impacts of this directly; from March to November 2020, we doubled our growth every month, and we have continued to grow 30% every month since.
S: Why did you decide to start working with us?
T.C: We’re proud to partner with Straal to enable their merchants to accept lower-cost, frictionless A2A payments at checkout through Straal Direct Payments. By adding account-to-account bank payments to its broad portfolio of payment methods, Straal had the foresight to gain a strategic advantage as a first-mover, while fulfilling its commitment to help their customers get ahead of the game, no matter their segment of the e-commerce market.
S: Which industry trends are the most important/interesting in your opinion?
T.C: Open Banking payments offer convenience and clarity to consumers. We are excited to continue to explore new use cases and to support merchants, banks and fintechs to drive consumer adoption by creating sophisticated user experiences with security and familiarity at their core. Strategic partnerships with energetic, forward-thinking payment providers like Straal are absolutely key to achieving this goal.
*A2A – Account-to-account Payments
*Automated sweeps – programmed mechanisms that allow funds to move funds from one account to another.
About Token
Token is an open banking payments platform driving the shift from traditional payment methods to bank payments with best-in-class, Pan-European bank connectivity, data and compliance capabilities. With Token’s complete toolkit, merchants, PSPs and banks create new capabilities and revenue streams through our broadest, Pan-European connectivity to over 3,000 banks. Token is both bank and developer-friendly, and multi-standard by design.
About Straal
Straal – an international provider of payment, optimization and fraud prevention solutions for future-minded businesses, is working closely with Token.io as a Straal Direct, open banking solutions provider.
Straal offers a comprehensive suite of products that make accepting digital payments easier, as well as more effective and secure. Straal enables accepting one-off and recurring payments carried out by customers with credit and debit cards of all major organizations, initiating transactions via open banking APIs, ordering SEPA Direct Debit cycles and more. Thanks to Straal, customers can pay in currencies of their choice (over 150 options), using their preferred desktop and mobile platforms, while merchants can effectively maximise their transaction approval rate and mitigate risk.
If you’re interested in innovative payments based on Open Banking, feel free to reach out our Sales Team!
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