Natwest automates variable recurring payments with Payit

In 2020, Natwest announced the launch of its online payment solution Payit. Based on Open Banking technologies, it was to enable the bank's customers to make instant payments to partner e-tailers. The solution has now reached a new stage with its first recurring payments with variable amounts.

FACTS

• Natwest's Open Banking payment solution, Payit, has just enabled its first recurring payments with variable amounts to be made in real life.

• This was done in a BtoC environment, allowing :

  • companies to send money to their customers without needing their bank details,

  • consumers to authorise recurring payment initiations from their bank account, for limited amounts.

• While payment initiatives via Open Banking require authorisation for each transfer, Payit introduces a mechanism to authorise multiple future payments within pre-agreed amounts.

• Payit is thus presented as an alternative to online payments currently made by direct debit or card.

ISSUES

• A UK first: Natwest boasts that it has become the first UK bank to successfully implement a recurring variable-amount payment in a real-life situation.

• A new step for account-to-account payments: One of the characteristics of recurring payments is that they have a fixed amount. By opening up open banking to variable amounts, the Payit solution opens the door to a greater number of possibilities for A2A payments, which will help democratise this payment method.

• Validation before commercial deployment: Payit will be tested in a pilot phase in a real environment in the first half of 2022 before becoming a fully-fledged commercial product deployed by the bank in early 2023.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Natwest confirms its atypical positioning in the UK payment market. The bank is asserting its independence at a time when Instant Payment's Pay By Bank service is becoming the norm in the territory.

• For its part, Natwest finally agreed to offer the service developed by MasterCard last August, while keeping in mind the idea of developing an alternative solution of its own, which is now taking a new lead with Payit.