Nuvei Corporation (Nasdaq: NVEI), the Canadian fintech company, and Plaid, a data network that enables consumers to connect their bank accounts to more than 8,000 apps and services, announce an extension of their existing global partnership “to support a wider range of businesses with accepting bank-based payments for multiple use cases, including recurring payments and payouts, and to serve additional verticals within the eCommerce landscape, such as utilities and B2B.”
Nuvei and Plaid are also “announcing an intention to scale their partnership globally before the end of the year. Nuvei’s global reach, including local acquiring in 47 markets, combined with the Plaid network which covers 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe, will enable businesses in multiple regions across the globe to enhance their online checkout through offering best-in-class, pay-by-bank experiences.”
In recent years the demand for bank-based payments has grown steadily from both consumers and merchants.
According to proprietary data compiled for Nuvei, bank-based payments “is already the third most popular online payment method in the U.S. behind credit and debit cards, and almost a quarter (23%) of all U.S. consumers are considering using bank-based payments for general eCommerce payments in the next 12 months.”
This rises to 44% of all U.S. consumers that “have chosen bank-based payments for any type of transaction previously.”
For merchants, the benefits of bank-based payments are clear and revolutionary.
Faster settlement times, reduced disputed transactions, and reduced operating costs “result in higher profit margins and accelerated revenue growth.”
Frictionless payment methods boost conversion rates, “accelerating revenues even further. While bank-based payments are typically not guaranteed, the Nuvei, Plaid partnership offers merchants the ability to assess transaction risk in real time and reduce return rates through Plaid Signal, a network-based machine learning model.”
This includes confirming “the consumer has available funds to complete a transaction, eliminating transactions that are falsely declined by banks and further benefiting top line performance.”
Historically, adoption of bank-based payments “have been hamstrung by the cumbersome manual experience of entering account and routing numbers, as well as general security concerns around consumers providing sensitive bank details online.”
In the study conducted for Nuvei, 35% of consumers “expressed security concerns as a key barrier to bank-based payment adoption.”
These hurdles are overcome “with the Nuvei Instant Bank Transfer solution.”
Nuvei’s Instant Bank Transfer “combines Nuvei’s speed of bank payment processing with Plaid’s seamless and secure user experience for bank account linking, which has been used by approximately 1 in 3 US consumers with a bank account to connect to digital financial services.”
The combination of these leading technologies “results in a consumer payment experience that is as easy as a click of a button, and merchants receive their funds instantly.”
Nuvei CEO and Chair Philip Fayer commented:
“We want to support merchants with payment solutions with lower processing costs and quicker access to funds. Consumers are increasingly turning to online bank transfer payments, but their user experience has often been poor. Nuvei Instant Bank Transfer eliminates the barriers to adoption, democratizing this payment method for consumers and offering merchants a genuine revenue-driving alternative to card payments. Our partnership with Plaid makes online bank transfer payments even more seamless for millions of U.S. consumers, which is why we’re excited to be expanding our partnership to target a broader range of eCommerce verticals.”
John Anderson, Head of Payments at Plaid, said:
“The shift to bank-based payments is a natural, inevitable progression and will become a seamless part of most payments experiences in the next few years. Plaid and Nuvei have a proven track record of helping companies streamline account funding experiences through bank transfers. We are excited to extend our partnership with Nuvei to bring safe, secure and seamless bank-based experiences to more companies and industries within the eCommerce realm.”
As noted in the update, Plaid is “a data network that powers the tools millions of people rely on to live a healthier financial life.”
Nearly 1 in 3 US consumers “with a bank account have connected via the Plaid network, which covers more than 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe, and connects to an ecosystem of more than 8,000 leading digital finance apps and services.”
Headquartered in San Francisco, the company was “founded in 2013 by Zach Perret and William Hockey.”