Payments made through Open Banking soar during lockdown

According to the official press release, most of the growth (88%) was from people with bank accounts held at traditional financial institutions such as Lloyds or Barclays, with account holders at challenger banks such as Monzo and Revolut accounting for 12% of growth. This indicates an increasing broader acceptance of PI beyond the more technologically progressive users at neo banks.

PI is a new form of online payment enabled by the EU Open Banking Directive PSD2. It allows payments to be made directly via a customer’s online banking. Prior to the lockdown in the UK, TrueLayer had previously recorded a steady 43% month on month increase in PI adoption. In March 2020, use shot up 460% as many people began working from home or were furloughed.

So far, TrueLayer’s Payment API has been adopted by a range of companies including ANNA Money, Nutmeg, Revolut, and Stake. TrueLayer has also been approved by the UK’s Cabinet Office to provide its Payment API to Government departments enabling PI to be used within the public sector.