After a successful pilot, the Beam service is available now to almost 100,000 websites using WooCommerce to sell goods and services in the UK. The news comes just a month after the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) published research showing that 50% of the UK’s small business community are utilising the services offered by Open Banking providers. The Beam service will bring the benefits of Open Banking to even more UK businesses, enabling them to receive funds instantly through Open Banking payments, helping to address cash flow challenges.
Online and omnichannel merchants using WooCommerce to accept payments can register with Beam and will also be issued a business payment account with Nuapay. Through this account, Beam can enable merchant access to instant payments, instant refunds, recurring payments, and instalment plans. Since there is no payment card involved, merchants are not subject to ever-rising card scheme fees. Beam aims to save UK businesses GBP 1 million in card processing fees over the next 2 years (until 2023).
No consumer card details ever being exposed also means that all transactions are fully Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) compliant. This benefits retailers and consumers by dramatically reducing the risk of fraud. To pay, consumers do not require a Beam account, as the transaction is completed as a direct Account-2-Account transfer. They simply select the Beam button on the checkout page and are redirected to their banking app to authorise the payment, according to the official press release.
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