Poland-based fintech ZEN.COM provides payment acceptance, digital wallet and financial services to businesses and consumers. It now offers pay-by-bank through Mastercard’s European payment platform. The service covers two use cases: payment acceptance for ZEN.COM merchants and top-ups of the company’s digital wallet.
As of September 2026, pay-by-bank is live in all nine target markets: Germany, Austria, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and Lithuania. The payment method is available to all ZEN.COM merchants in these countries and to consumers funding their ZEN.COM wallets.
One integration, nine markets
The rollout rests on its technical approach. ZEN.COM did not connect to each market separately. It deployed pay-by-bank across all nine countries through a single integration with Mastercard Open Finance. Customers can pay directly from their bank account, and merchants gain a bank-based payment option without building market-specific connections.
According to Łukasz Neska, Chief Growth Officer at ZEN.COM, the method gives merchants and customers a direct way to move money from their bank accounts, alongside the cards and other payment methods they already use. The company presents the launch as part of an effort to reduce the friction traditionally associated with bank transfers and invoice payments.
For Mastercard, the partnership addresses a recurring operational challenge. Valerie Nowak, EVP, Head of Open Finance, Mastercard APEMEA, said that businesses expanding across markets do not want to manage multiple integrations and payment infrastructures. It was also said that the collaboration is intended to make pay-by-bank easier to deploy, scale, and use across a range of European markets, and that the momentum observed so far indicates that Open Finance is moving from promise to commercial reality.
Pay-by-bank as a complement at checkout
The agreement reflects a broader shift among payment providers and merchants towards pay-by-bank. The method is positioned as a complement to existing payment methods rather than a replacement for cards, giving businesses more choice at checkout. Both companies describe pay-by-bank as gaining momentum across Europe.
For ZEN.COM, including wallet top-ups extends pay-by-bank beyond merchant checkout. Consumers in the supported markets can fund their wallets directly from a bank account, and merchants can accept bank payments through the same provider relationship.
For Mastercard, the deal is a further step in its investment in Open Finance across Europe. Through this work, the company aims to support banks, fintechs, and merchants in delivering new payment experiences through its infrastructure. The two companies plan to continue working together to expand access to pay-by-bank for merchants and consumers across the European market.
