VRPs offer a smarter payment experience for consumers, enabling them to easily set up regular payments through their bank app, create maximum payment limits or cancel them altogether - all with the tap of a button. The bank is the first in the UK to go beyond the requirement for banks to provide VRP for sweeping - the automatic transfer of money between two accounts belonging to the same person.

The first non-sweeping VRP payments by the bank were made earlier this year by NatWest customers to Charity Right, an international charity that provides children with nutritious daily school meals, and to Pink Chilli, a lettings software provider.

NatWest has also previously announced plans to pilot VRP through Payit - its open banking payments proposition - by offering the automated service as a payment option for its Rapid Cash customers.

The new partnerships with Token, Yapily and Tink will unlock a wider range of use cases for VRP, inlcuding bill payments via Tink, and to merchant customers of one-click checkout platform Volume, via Yapily.

Daniel Globerson, head of Bank of APIs at NatWest Group, comments: “As a relationship bank for a digital world, we’re committed to offering innovative and convenient payment methods to businesses and consumers. VRP brings greater simplicity, control and flexibility to payments. It’s fast, cost-efficient and uses the very latest in bank API technology.”