Hello everyone, I'm Aude Vicaire, and I welcome you to Instant Paiement.

Today, I'd like to provide an overview of our simplified transfer solution, Pay by Bank.

As a reminder, simplified transfer is a payment solution from account to account initiated by the merchant. It particularly facilitates payments of higher amounts and can be used both online and in-store.

This payment initiation became possible through PSD2 in 2018 and is valid across all of Europe.

The transfer is simplified because it allows for making a purchase without needing to enter an IBAN, add a beneficiary, or input the amount or reference number.

In-store, you need to scan a QR code; for e-commerce, it's available from the payment page. In both cases, the customer then accesses a pre-filled transfer order from their banking portal.

Once validated, the payment is guaranteed and irrevocable. This prevents the risk of non-payment for the merchant and significantly simplifies the reconciliation process in their back office.

In addition to providing a better shopping experience for customers, this solution offers an alternative to credit cards, especially for high-value carts. It avoids the risk of payment rejection due to exceeded card limits, or resorting to checks and traditional transfers, with associated fraud risks and the heaviness and costs of their processing.

FEEDBACK ON SIMPLIFIED TRANSFERS So, where are we today? Overall, despite the existence of simplified transfers since the implementation of PSD2 and Open Banking, there hasn't been massive adoption yet. However, customers and merchants who have used it agree on its benefits: it doesn't replace cards, but offers an efficient alternative for high-value transactions.

We've gathered feedback from our customers using this payment method, especially in-store. What comes out of this is:

  • It's appreciated by customers and sellers as it addresses a real pain point.
  • It's important for the seller to "qualify" the customer to whom this payment method is offered, to ensure a smooth experience (the customer having a smartphone with their banking app or at least their online account).
  • Vendor training is crucial to properly assist the customer.

Factors that might still hinder the use of this solution are, of course, digitally reluctant customers, those who haven't installed their banking app or have forgotten their credentials, or technical limitations like bank validation delays.

CHALLENGES TO ADDRESS To boost adoption, we've identified several approaches, such as:

  • Stabilizing and harmonizing banking APIs, which took time to reach the expected reliability level.
  • Increasing the awareness of this payment method and encouraging its use, notably through EPI, offering customers free instant payments, or requesting payments.
  • Constructing a value proposition for insurance, similar to what has been done for credit cards, by banks or merchants, as already done by Carrefour Voyage, for example.

In summary, our Pay by Bank solution perfectly addresses concrete needs, and we see great development potential in working together with merchants and banking actors to provide customers with the best payment solutions.

That's it for Instant Paiement.

Next month, I'll talk to you about e-commerce payments and keys to improving conversion rates.

Until then, feel free to share your thoughts on simplified transfers in the comments, and for more information about Market Pay and our products, visit our website and follow us on social media.

See you soon!