35,000+ Businesses Have Selected GoCardless for Open Banking Payments

WHY THIS MATTERS: The mass onboarding figures released by GoCardless are a crucial validation point for the entire UK open banking movement, signaling the technology’s transition from a novel concept to a commercially mature payment rail. The core challenge facing account-to-account (A2A) adoption has always been ease of access and reliability, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By simplifying the onboarding process and integrating reliability features like ‘intelligent routing’—which ensures payment completion even if A2A is unavailable—the platform effectively removes the risk barrier for businesses. This milestone confirms that a viable, high-performance alternative to legacy card networks now exists, offering merchants significant cost savings and faster settlement times, thereby accelerating the broader economy’s shift toward instant payments as the default method for digital commerce.

Bank payment company GoCardless has today announced that more than one in three customers have taken open banking payments through its platform, driving growth of ‘Pay by Bank’ across the UK economy. 

The impressive number of open banking customers — 37,323 since the launch of its first open banking product, Instant Bank Pay, in 2021 — underscores how GoCardless has democratised access to the new technology. While competitors often require long sales cycles and complex integrations to use open banking, GoCardless has enabled small and medium-sized businesses to tap into its benefits immediately by signing up via the GoCardless website and using the dashboard, with no technical expertise required.

The fintech has an equally notable track record with enterprise customers. Industry leaders including JustGiving and Capital on Tap also place their trust in GoCardless’ open banking solutions, proving their ability to handle high-volume, mission-critical transactions with ease.

As open banking payments become mainstream, GoCardless has developed a high-performance solution that makes adoption viable and highly effective today. Key features include:

• Full payer coverage from day one through ‘intelligent routing’ that automatically shifts payers to Direct Debit if open banking isn’t available.

• A ‘bank guess’ feature: the GoCardless platform has seen 70% of UK payers over the past 15 years. This data is leveraged to auto-fill payment details and create a smoother checkout experience.

• 99.5% uptime, ensuring reliable service — a critical factor for early adopters and a common concern across the industry.

By providing widely accessible ‘Pay by Bank’ solutions, GoCardless offers businesses a genuine alternative to card payments, ultimately reducing fees and enabling more secure, seamless transactions.

Shaun Puckin, Chief Product Officer at GoCardless, said: “We’re immensely proud that over 35,000 businesses have placed their trust in GoCardless for open banking. That number is a testament to the range of businesses we’ve enabled, and our dedication to growing ‘Pay by Bank’ so merchants have a real choice when it comes to how they get paid. As open banking continues to mature, our product combines ease of access, scale and reliability so early adopters feel confident with a solution that works today, whilst future-proofing for tomorrow.”

What is open banking?

Open banking describes the process of banks and other financial institutions opening up data for regulated providers to access, use, and share, in a safe and secure manner — and only with the customer’s consent. 

Open banking payments are powered by this concept. Built on modern API technology, they replace clunky manual bank transfers and expensive card networks with direct account-to-account connectivity. 

By combining this new technology with established methods like Direct Debit, businesses can bridge the gap between innovation and reliability, using open banking for instant, one-off payments payment while tapping into a trusted and preferred way to pay for recurring transactions.

Key benefits

For businesses

• Reduced costs: Eliminates the high interchange fees associated with card networks; for instance, businesses using GoCardless’ Instant Bank Pay save up to 48% compared to collecting payments with cards.

• Instant confirmation: Payments are authorised in real-time, reducing Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and the need for manual reconciliation.

• Lower failure rates: Direct account-to-account flows bypass common card issues like expiration dates or stolen cards.

For payers

• Frictionless checkout: No need to type in long card numbers; payments are authorized with a simple tap via their existing mobile banking app.

• Enhanced security: Transactions can only be authorised through the payer’s online banking platform, meaning sensitive payment details are never shared with the merchant.

• Greater clarity: Payers gain real-time visibility over their outgoings, as money leaves the account instantly, unlike the “pending payment” lag of traditional cards.

• Transparency & control: Customers remain the sole decision-makers over their data and can revoke consent or authorisation at any time through their banking app.

FF NEWS TAKE: This move unequivocally shifts the competitive landscape by proving that Pay by Bank can scale reliably and securely for both SMBs and major enterprises. The key takeaway is the successful marriage of A2A payments with robust fallback mechanisms, addressing historical reliability concerns. The next vital step for the industry is to see how this simplified model will integrate with and encourage the adoption of Variable Recurring Payments (VRP), which promises to unlock the full potential of open banking beyond one-off transactions.