Through a single point of integration, BR-DGE’s merchants can access a world of payment providers, fraud capabilities, and alternative payment methods. This new partnership will enable BR-DGE merchants to benefit from Volt’s Open Banking tool, which connects to over 1,800 global banks and routes payments in real-time via the best-performing network to optimise payment flows. BR-DGE merchants will also be able to access Open Banking’s first fraud prevention tool, Circuit Breaker, which was created by Volt to counter fraudulent activity by identifying and blocking suspicious payment activity. This collaboration follows the recent launch of BR-DGE’s fraud reduction tool Vault, which enables merchants to lower fraud rates by tapping into the power of network tokenisation.

Volt is one of Europe’s fastest-growing Open Banking providers, working with an impressive range of merchants across a number of sectors and territories. Combining a technology-first approach with a focus on value-add services, Volt enables faster, easier and more secure payment experiences that boost conversion for merchants. BR-DGE merchants will now be able to benefit from the security, ease and efficiency of Volt’s platform whilst being able to offer consumers a frictionless payments experience.

The partnership follows growing merchant demand for first-class Open Banking technology and reflects recent figures showing Open Banking usage hitting a milestone of 7 million consumer and SME users in the UK1. The increased adoption among merchants is being driven by businesses looking for lower costs from their payments infrastructure, low-to-no fraud rates, real-time settlements, and the ability to provide customers with a high-quality user experience.

Volt joins over 300 technology and payment providers that have signed up to BR-DGE’s partnership programme in order to provide merchants with the ability to access a global marketplace of payment services through one single integration.

Commenting on the partnership, BR-DGE’s Head of Partnerships Tom Voaden said: “Merchants across sectors are looking for payment partners that enable them to access the very best fintech innovations. Partnering with Volt enables BR-DGE to continue to offer merchants the very best security and Open Banking technology in order to support their growth. Open Banking and fraud prevention are high on the payment priority list for businesses, and it is only set to grow in importance as firms look to better serve and protect their customers.”

Richard Drury, Volt’s VP Partnerships, said: “We’re excited to bring real-time Open Banking payments, backed up by intelligent fraud prevention, to BR-DGE’s merchants. We’ve seen huge demand from e-commerce businesses for payments that settle faster, are easier for shoppers to initiate, and which don’t come with high fees. These retailers are understandably extremely keen to reduce the impact of fraud, too. Open Banking payments, which benefit from bank-grade security, are inherently safer - but Circuit Breaker, which enables merchants to set up rules governing fraudulent transactions, takes security to a new level. We look forward to helping BR-DGE’s merchants realise its benefits.