As banking becomes increasingly connected, people demand security more than ever before, with 67% naming it their most important criteria for using digital banking solutions.

Meanwhile 66% say that the biggest advantage of going digital is that it saves time, and 65% cite ease of use. A similar percentage think the demand for mobile will increase because it makes transactions simple and convenient.

More than half of those surveyed say they would consider switching to a digital bank. However, with traditional banks offering more digital services, an increasing number of respondents say that they will stay with their provider (39% compared to 32% in 2017).

PSD2 and Open Banking continues to fail to cut though, with 85% of respondents having little knowledge about it. But, there is support for an app that lets users see all their accounts with different banks in one place.

As tech firms continue to encroach on bank turf, the survey shows that incumbents still have a big trust advantage. Some 70% of Europeans see banks as their go-to source when it comes to information about managing money.

Jason Lane, EVP, market development, Europe, Mastercard, says: "We see that Europeans are very much interested in connected and personalized financial services which make their banking easier and more transparent. The Open Banking initiative will help drive these innovations.

"As trust is a key success factor, banks are in the pole position for providing such solutions to their customers as people trust them more than any other peer groups or institutions when it comes to managing their money."

● Mastercard-owned Pay by Bank app can be used on the high street for the first time
● Users will see super-enhanced security and fast payment, whilst automatically receiving retailer specific loyalty, personalised rewards, offers and digital itemised receipts at the point-of-sale when using Pay by Bank app

Under the partnership, Yoyo and Pay by Bank app (PbBa) - a new way to pay - will deliver a combined payments and customer loyalty offering to retail and bank customers in 2019.

Initially available for in-app purchases with Yoyo retailers, for the first time users will be able to use PbBa in physical stores - with customers automatically collecting retail-specific loyalty and digital receipts, as well as rewards, offers and surprise and delight campaigns tailored to their habits and shopping preferences.

Created by Mastercard’s Vocalink business, Pay by Bank app is a new, easy and secure way for customers to pay from their bank account using their trusted mobile banking app, without the need to enter any additional details or passwords It is designed to simplify the checkout experience giving customers more control when they make a purchase.

One of Europe’s fastest-growing fintech companies, Yoyo’s unique commerce API enables its banking and retail partners to instantly combine payment with personalised loyalty, campaigns, rewards and offers, as well as delivering fully-itemised digital receipts to more than 1.5 million users by identifying purchase and product preference behaviour through the point-of-sale.

Banks and retailers will now have access to an unparalleled level of anonymised payment and basket data through the Yoyo platform, enabling a new level of understanding, engagement and personalised marketing, whilst at the same time ensuring that individual identity and payment data is fully protected through Yoyo’s unique double tokenization technology and the bank grade security offered through Pay by Bank app.

Yoyo CEO Michael Rolph said: “We’re delighted to be working with Mastercard and Pay by Bank app. We’ve always believed that adding both security and value to the payments process is crucial for the future of bricks and mortar retail, and this partnership is going to significantly enhance the customer experience for PbBa users.”

“The combined Yoyo and Pay by Bank app proposition will provide both customers and retailers with added speed and security at the point-of-sale, as well as an omnichannel payment and loyalty experience that is unrivalled in the market.”

Jonathan Wood, Senior Vice President, Consumer Applications at Mastercard said: “Pay by Bank app is set to shape the future of payments, as more banks and retailers offer this as an option to shoppers. We are thrilled to be partnering with YoYo to bring this revolutionary new way to pay to the High Street, putting the customer firmly in control of their finances. We are committed to transforming the payments landscape with this fast, secure and convenient new way to pay.” 

“We are in the middle of an unprecedented disruption in the banking and payments industries,” said PayFi’s Head of Growth Peter Gordon, “The recent announcement of Avidia Bank being the first community bank to commit to joining the RTP network through PayFi’s Branch99TM Real-Time Platform furthers our commitment to community and regional banks. The ISO 20022 messaging functionality on the RTP network provides banks of all sizes with rich messaging capabilities to enable conversational commerce, allowing banks to continue to build strong relationships with their customers.”

The RTP network is the first new core payments infrastructure built in the U.S. in more than 40 years. The network is the first to deliver 24/7 clearing and interbank settlement, including the real-time movement of money and enriched data between participating financial institutions. The RTP network offers a suite of available use cases and extensive level of data accompanying each RTP transaction. The RTP network currently reaches more than 50% of U.S. accounts for real-time payment receipt and is on track to reach near ubiquity in 2020.

“The Clearing House is excited to partner with PayFi and to work with them to bring real-time payments to their clients,” said Steve Ledford, Senior Vice President and RTP Product Executive at TCH. “We are committed to providing real-time payments capabilities on the RTP network to all U.S. depository institutions. PayFi’s community and regional bank clients will be able to provide new levels of speed and efficiency in transactions on the RTP network that will ultimately benefit their customers.”

PayFi is a real-time payment processor and professional services firm focused on accelerating the adoption of real-time payments and relationship banking for community banks. PayFi is positioned to empower banks to define and deliver payments strategies and enable next-generation payment features including enhanced speed, security, and robust ISO 20022 messaging capabilities on PayFi’s Branch99TM Real-Time Platform through simple APIs. 

 Announced at Money 20/20, Xpollens helps these players integrate a full range of payment services, from payment cards to instant payments through customer accounts.

“X p ollens removes the complexity of issuing and managing paymen ts methods, allowing Fintechs, retailers and corporates to concentrate on their core business, on providing the best customer experience, and to take full advantage of the huge business opportunities afforded by PSD 2, ” said Natixis Payments CEO Pierre-Antoine Vacheron.

A co-creation approach that combines shared expertise

Xpollens is a co-creation initiative that benefits from the combined expertise of Natixis Payments, the biggest Visa card issuer in continental Europe (20 million Visa cards 2018) through the BPCE group, and Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments.

Natixis Payments and Visa share a culture of innovation, as well as solid expertise in integrating the latest innovations and payments methods available in the euro zone. The two companies have created specialist multidisciplinary “squads”, whose experts work closely with individual customers, whatever their size, in a focused co-creation approach. Using agile methods, these squads help integrate tailor-made payments solutions quickly.

Xpollens is initially piloting the offer with Fintechs. Two partner companies were selected at the beginning of 2019 to test and develop the range of services provided by Natixis Payments and Visa: Spanish savings app Coinscrap, and French company Linxo, a financial assistant app that allows customers to view and plan across multiple accounts.

Linxo, France’s leading mobile financial assistant service, aims to offer its customers an expanded service with checking accounts, payment cards and instant payments.

“Thanks to X p ollens, we can issue physical or virtual payment cards, while helping our customers k e e p t r a c k o f m u lti p l e a c c o u n ts w it h r e a l - ti m e n o tifi c a ti o n s,” said Linxo CEO Bruno Van
Haetsdaele. “This answers our customers’ demand for real - time information on their a ccounts, and frees us from restriction s imposed by their banks.”

Xpollens commitment is to deploy a full payments solution with its customers within 100 days. Linxo’s implementation process began in May 2019. The company will be ready for commercial testing with customers before the end of the year.

A race against time to deliver services to new users

“The reality today is that the user experience must be seamless, easy, fast and personalised, and that includes paymen ts,” said Visa Head of Strategic Partnerships Europe, SVP Bill Gajda. “However, offering new payments services is complex. While PSD2 has open ed up the market by allowing players to offer payments services previously reserved for traditional banks, this opportunity comes with a level of regulatory complexity , and c ompl iance with rules imposed by different countries across the euro zone is a big ch allenge . X p ollens helps by providing the necessary payment licenses and by guaranteeing the smooth management of payment accounts.”

Beyond licenses, Xpollens provides a wealth of white label services, including physical and virtual cards, contactless and mobile payment and more.

“It’s a huge opportunity, but only the players who are quickest to offer a seamless customer journey t h a t i n t e g r a t e s n e w p a y m e n t m e t h o d s that m e e t c o n s u m e r e x p e c t a ti o n s will differentiate themselves from the competition ," said Pierre-Antoine Vacheron, CEO of Natixis Payments. "With Xpollens, Natixis Payments and Visa have respond ed , at a pan - European level, to a rapidly evolving market by providing non - banking players with expertise, platforms and innovations."

Using its rules-based robotics process automation (RPA) technology, Troovo helps companies integrate their disconnected vendor payment systems, expense management platforms, paper-based payment processes and accounting platforms. Troovo’s unique technology eliminates payment fraud, labor costs and errors.

“Troovo is proud to leverage our significant travel industry experience to deliver companies in any industry the ability to capitalize on the power of digital and virtual payments to transform their accounts payables, expense management and any B2B payment workflows,” said Kurt Knackstedt, CEO and Co-Founder, Troovo. “In a digital world, Troovo is the only technology company that provides companies the ability to streamline their complex and laborious payments systems with a scalable, easy-to-implement, fully integrated solution across any type of B2B system or workflow.”

With 115 billion wholesale payment transactions forecasted for 2019 and virtual card spending expected to surpass $1 trillion by 2022, Troovo is uniquely positioned to provide customers the ability to capitalize on this digital transformation. The company has expanded over the past 18 months with the significant addition of new customers and strategic alliances. Among its new customers and partners are payments provider WEX and market leading blockchain technology company Consensys.

Troovo’s RPA technology is working with ConsenSys to utilize virtual payment solutions for travel-related expenses. Now ConsenSys employees can avoid putting travel expenses on their personal cards and having to request subsequent reimbursements. Troovo is also working with Consensys to integrate a live feed of Consensys’ travel bookings into a newly developed smart contracts platform being developed by Ansero, a ConsenSys company, to be launched later this year.

Troovo’s Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology allows ConsenSys Travel to solve a major pain point for the company's travelers - the need to put hotel charges on their personal cards and then submit them for reimbursement - while also driving greater adoption of the travel program, better controlling hotel spend and generating far more actionable data. As a global blockchain technology company building the infrastructure, applications, and practices that enable a decentralized world, ConsenSys has a keen interest in partnering with other innovative companies whose products promote transparency, accuracy and accountability. Troovo has also created an API to provide travel booking data to Ansero, a start-up within ConsenSys building next-generation travel management solutions. Having completed one easy integration with Troovo, Ansero's product Smart Hotel Rate is actively monitoring the effectiveness of ConsenSys Travel's negotiated hotel discounts - and will soon do the same for external customers with only minimal additional development effort.

“In addition to delighting ConsenSys travelers with seamless virtual card capabilities, Troovo’s exciting RPA technology is uniquely positioned to provide Ansero a reliable, trusted and secure source of travel bookings, whose solutions will drive savings for potentially thousands of customers," said Ansero co-founder John Packel. "The substantial development time and expense Troovo saved us with Smart Hotel Rate is allowing us to accelerate R&D for Ethereum blockchain 'smart contracts' that will transform the way corporations and their hotel partners negotiate, transact and assess program performance."