U.S. fintech Plaid announced on Thursday it has joined forces with Railsbank. Plaid reported that through the new partnership, Railsbank customers in the UK will have access to Plaid’s Payment Initiation API to accept instant bank payments directly within their app or website.
Plaid reported that with the API, Railsbank customers may enable instant account-to-account transfer and create “innovative” payment journeys.
“As a result of the partnership, Railsbank customers have all the benefits of Plaid’s PIS product, without having to onboard with two separate service providers.”
Plaid further revealed the partnership offers added benefits to customers like increased conversion and “higher confidence” through instant confirmation of a payment’s status.
“With Payment Initiation, people don’t have to enter card numbers to fund accounts and pay from them, reducing the possibility of payment failures and eliminating any uncertainty of whether a payment has completed.”
Founded in 2013, Plaid stated it is used by thousands of digital financial apps and services, including Betterment, Expensify, Microsoft and Venmo, and by many of the largest banks to make it easy for consumers to connect their financial accounts with the apps and services they want to use. The company also connects with more than 11,000 financial institutions across the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
Plaid went on to add the partnership marks a “significant milestone” in its journey to provide consumers with financial product and service access that will use open finance benefits. The partnership with Railsbank comes less than two weeks after Plaid and Paysend announced their collaboration to speed up digital transfers.
