Volt launches Transformer for Open Banking payments

After recognising who a shopper paying by card banks with, Transformer prompts them to pay directly from their bank account instead. A shopper chooses to pay by card on the merchant’s checkout, reaches for their debit card, and starts entering their card number.

The first six digits are the bank identification number (BIN). Once these are inputted, Transformer identifies who the shopper banks with and displays a prompt that contains an incentive, as devised by the merchant, which a shopper can find difficult to ignore – for example, 1,000 reward points.

As an example, online travel agents (OTAs) are hindered by card interchange fees, slow settlement times, and the operational headache of customer cancellations and refunds. Transformer allows them an alternative to cards in the form of Open Banking payments and seeks to persuade – via an incentive of their choosing – their customers to use it.

Among the reported benefits are: real-time settlements, smaller transaction fees, and improved customer loyalty. When a shopper responds to the prompt, they’ll be forwarded to their banking app and asked to log in. By logging in to their bank, Strong Customer Authentication requirements are automatically met – another advantage over card payments.

Once logged in, the customer sees the transaction ready for their approval. If they’re happy, they tap ‘Confirm’ to initiate the payment. When the payment is completed, the customer is redirected to the merchant’s confirmation screen. Their booking is complete and the reward points are earned. 

Transformer is reportedly designed for any online business that wants to start shifting away from costly card payments via powerful customer incentives. Airlines, retailers, streaming services, car dealerships, events companies – they’re all suitable, according to Volt.

Transformer reportedly allows merchants to create their own incentives – from reward points and discounts to priority access and freebies. Volt argues that it has the development expertise to build these incentives into any checkout flow.