Pay by Bank: The Future of Payments

01What is Pay by Bank?

Pay by Bank is a fast and secure way for customers to pay directly from their bank account at checkout. Instead of entering card details, the customer selects their bank, approves the payment in their banking app, and the funds are transferred instantly. No card networks. No intermediaries. Just a direct, secure payment.

In the United Kingdom, Pay by Bank is powered by Open Banking and the Faster Payments network. Across Europe, it runs on SEPA/Instant SEPA, and similar systems are now emerging worldwide, including PIX in Brazil, UPI in India, and FedNow in the United States.

How Pay by Bank Works

• Customer selects Pay by Bank at checkout
• They choose their bank from a list
• They are redirected to their banking app with the payment details pre-filled
• The customer approves the payment using Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) through biometrics or secure login
• Funds are transferred directly to the merchant

No card numbers. No intermediaries. No risk of stolen details.

Why Merchants Should Care

For businesses, Pay by Bank is not just another payment option. It is a way to solve some of the biggest challenges in online commerce:

• Lower fees: no card networks or interchange costs.
• Instant settlement: funds land in your account usually within seconds, improving cash flow.
• Reduced fraud and no chargebacks in most markets: every payment is authenticated by the customer's own bank using Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).
• Higher conversion: customers already trust their bank, making them more likely to complete checkout.

Payment Rails Behind Pay by Bank Around the World

While the United Kingdom has led adoption, Pay by Bank is expanding rapidly across global markets:

• United Kingdom: Faster Payments.
• EU: SEPA and SEPA Instant payments.
• Brazil: PIX is now the dominant payment method.
• US: ACH, FedNow and RTP.
• Australia: New Payments Platform (NPP).
• India: UPI, processing billions of instant transactions each month.

Merchants everywhere are embracing Pay by Bank for its lower costs and stronger security. The challenge is that most of these systems are designed for domestic payments, and using them across borders remains fragmented and expensive.

02How Quidkey Makes Pay by Bank Better

Pay by Bank is powerful but fragmented. Each country runs its own rail and most providers only connect to a limited set of them. For merchants, this creates unnecessary complexity.

Quidkey solves this with one integration and global reach. Our platform connects to multiple providers and networks across markets, and Quidkey orchestrates the best route for every transaction.

Here is how Quidkey makes Pay by Bank work for merchants:

• Bank prediction at checkout: automatically detects and displays the customer's bank as the first payment option to reduce friction and increase conversion.
• Cross-border and FX: built-in multi-currency support with seamless international settlement.
• Refunds: simple one-click refunds, just like card payments.
• Plug-and-play integrations: iFrame, Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, iOS SDK, Android SDK, and API.
• Faster go-live: start accepting payments in minutes without heavy development work.

Quidkey is available to merchants in more than 90 jurisdictions, enabling sales into the UK, EU, US, and Australia.

03Conclusion

Pay by Bank is more than a buzzword. It is a smarter, safer, and cheaper way for merchants to get paid. The model is already live in the United Kingdom and is rapidly expanding worldwide.

With Quidkey, you can enable Pay by Bank through a single integration, reduce your costs, eliminate fraud and chargebacks, and unlock a global payment solution built for merchants.