Estera Sava, Senior Writer at The Paypers, discusses A2A technology enablers: Open Banking, Open Finance, and CBDCs.
Instant payment rails move money only when a payer agrees to pay, a payee is correctly identified, and each party’s bank has communicated what's happening. Data sharing, payment initiation, payment requests, and the rules governing central bank money – we find Open Banking, Open Finance, and CBDCs at these layers.
From Open Banking to Open Finance: data sharing beyond payments
Open Banking's initial agreement (that a consumer consents, a bank exposes account data through an API, and a third party builds something with it) is now extending past payment accounts and advancing differently across jurisdictions.
The EU's Financial Data Access (FiDA) regulation, in trilogue as of April 2026, would apply this consent-based logic to savings, investments, pensions, insurance, and credit data, creating an Open Finance ecosystem. Formal adoption should follow, with obligations applied in phases from 2027, as industry-run data-sharing schemes are established sector-by-sector. However, these schemes and an agreement on how data holders are compensated or whether large non-EU platforms get full access don't exist yet, so the law may pass and find the industry unprepared.
In the US, a federal court has enjoined the Open Banking rule under Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act, after the regulator argued that the 2024 version exceeded its authority, and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) submission sits with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
Request-to-Pay and B2B Open Banking APIs: the need for a messaging layer
While instant credit transfers move funds quickly, they need to inform the payer when and why they owe money. Request-to-Pay schemes exist precisely for this. Europe's SEPA Request-to-Pay (SRTP) scheme rulebook version 4.0 clarifies EPC Directory Service (EDS) registration, required of all SRTP participants, and updates the adherence process and procedures for using EDS. For B2B use cases, this layer defines the reason for a payment. SRTP adoption is behind pure payment initiation services (PIS), as both requesting and paying banks must support the scheme for it to work end-to-end, limiting its reach until participation broadens.
Payouts, refunds, and recurring payments: Open Banking as a revenue model
Open Banking scales only if merchants can also send money back quickly. Instant rails should settle refunds on a timeline comparable to the original payment, especially important since bank transfers don't carry a card network's built-in dispute mechanism.
The EU is moving slowly. The SEPA Payment Account Access (SPAA) scheme, focused on ‘premium’ Open Banking services, including dynamic recurring payments and payments split across multiple recipients, has theoretically existed since 2022 but it’s stuck at pilot stage, with limited bank adoption.
The UK, however, moved from consumer ‘sweeping’ into commercial use. As part of its Payments Forward Plan, the UK Payments Initiative (UKPI) went live on 2 June 2026 to develop a scheme for commercial variable recurring payments (cVRPs). It is set to enable businesses to collect bank-initiated VRPs, first for utilities and government services, with ecommerce billing to follow. While Open Banking payment volumes increased, that scalability is subject to broad bank participation. Visa has built its own card-like dispute resolution overlay and liability rules on top of Pay by Bank and VRPs. In 2025, it had already signed up providers like Tink and completed a cVRP, signalling that the incumbents A2A threatens see benefits in shaping the rails instead of resisting them.
Brazil is fastest with Pix Automático. The direct-debit-style recurring feature added in 2025 enables businesses to collect variable payments, while Pix em Garantia will allow future Pix receivables to be used as collateral for credit.
Insurers collecting premiums and issuing payouts are the logical next vertical for any of these models, but adoption remains lower than in utilities or government.
CBDCs and multi-rail interoperability
Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have progressed politically more than technically, as seen with the Digital Euro. The European Parliament's economic affairs committee approved the draft report in June 2026 and opened trilogue talks with EU member states. The Digital Euro pilot with select PSPs was announced in July 2026, and as of September, a call for online and mobile merchants to participate in the pilot is open. Potential first issuance is still targeted for 2029, with future ambitions including potential interoperability with other financial services, including A2A.
Meanwhile, CBDC ambitions meant to solve cross-border interoperability have fragmented: mBridge and Project Agorá are now competing, non-overlapping blocs, whereas retail rail-to-rail links are moving faster as they don't require any country to commit to a shared CBDC architecture. India is doing this domestically: its retail digital rupee pilot has been built to work through the same QR code functionality used for everyday UPI transfers, showcasing how a live CBDC can reinforce an existing instant payment system rather than compete with it.
Ultimately, however, multi-rail interoperability is happening through bilateral and multilateral links between existing instant payment systems, not CBDCs as the connective layer.
About the author
Estera Sava is a Senior Writer at The Paypers, bringing her expertise in content creation and editorial processes to the Audience team. Focusing on the ever-evolving fintech and payments landscape, she is involved in various high-impact projects and industry reports and coordinates the annual Account-to-Account Payments reports. Through her proactive approach and dedication, Estera helps drive the success of The Paypers' initiatives.
