For small business · Pay by bank
Open banking payments for small business
A small business wants two things from a payment: the money arrives, and nobody loses a week wiring it up. Open banking payments let your customers pay straight from their own bank, on one integration instead of a payment stack. A licensed PIS provider initiates each payment, the customer's bank moves the funds, and the credit lands on your own C2B account.
viaBanking does not accept payments for your business. Your customers pay into your own C2B account at a licensed issuer, and every payment is initiated by a licensed PIS provider.
The flow
How your customers pay
Five steps, and your business is the subject of only the last one.
- 01
The customer chooses to pay by bank
At your checkout the customer picks pay by bank instead of typing card data. The page shows the amount and the payee. No card data or banking credential reaches your business.
- 02
The customer picks the bank holding their account
The customer selects their own bank from the pay-by-bank list your market supports. That list comes from the licensed providers behind the platform, so a new bank reaches every business at once.
- 03
A licensed provider initiates the payment
A licensed PIS provider initiates the payment at the customer's bank, on the customer's instruction. viaBanking passes the request through and normalises the response, and never initiates payments itself.
- 04
The customer approves it inside their own bank
Strong customer authentication runs on the customer's bank, in the banking app that customer already uses. The bank applies its own limits, then moves the funds. No banking password reaches your business.
- 05
The credit is confirmed on your business account
When the money reaches your C2B account, the platform confirms that credit through a licensed AIS provider in read-only mode. Your business ships against a confirmed credit, not a started payment.
The upside
What the business gets
Four things a small business gets from pay-by-bank payments.
- Get paid
Get paid into an account you own
Your customers pay into a C2B account your business holds at a licensed EMI or bank. viaBanking never holds that money, so you get an ordinary bank credit.
- Certainty
Get a confirmed credit, not a promise
Most payment flows only report that a payment was initiated. Here you also get the separate credit signal, and that is the one to release an order on.
- One layer
Get one integration, not a payment stack
One API, one payment data model, one set of callbacks across every bank and licensed provider. Get pay-by-bank live once, then nothing new to build per bank.
- Admin
Get the month-end admin down
Payment data, status data and reconciliation data land in one shape, so financial admin gets a report, and the financial year closes on real data.
Mechanics
Payments without the card stack
Cards and pay-by-bank are different mechanics, not a ranking. What changes is where the customer approves, what data your page handles, and how money reaches you.
Card payments
- The customer enters card data on a page your business is responsible for.
- The payment is authorised against a card account or a credit line.
- Your financial operations wait for an acquirer payout after settlement.
- Scheme rules govern how disputes and reversals are handled.
Pay-by-bank payments
- The customer approves the payment inside their own bank, with no card data entered.
- Money moves as a bank transfer out of the account the customer chose to pay from.
- The credit arrives on your C2B account and the platform confirms it.
- The customer's bank and the local scheme govern the payment once initiated.
This is a mechanics comparison, not a pricing or legal one. Fees, disputes and reversals depend on your own agreements and on each scheme's rules in each market, so read both sets of terms before changing a checkout. The regulated side is described on the payment initiation services page.
Your data
Your payment data in one place
Every one of your pay-by-bank payments produces the same financial data: a reference, an amount, a currency, a status history and the confirmed credit event. That data arrives in one shape, whichever bank the customer chose to pay from, so reconciliation reads one data model instead of a folder of bank exports.
Status data is pushed as signed callbacks, so your systems get each new state without polling. Transaction data can be pulled for a single payment or for all payments in a date range, which is what financial reporting needs at month end.
One thing this is not: a feed of your customer's bank account data. The read-only access behind the platform exists to confirm credits on your own C2B account. Your business does not get customer balance data or statement data.
Growth
Growing into new markets
A business that starts in one market rarely wants a new payment project for the second market.
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New banks, no release on your side
When a licensed provider adds a bank, that bank appears in the pay-by-bank list for its market, and your business gets the coverage without shipping code.
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A new market is a configuration
A new market means new banks in the pay-by-bank list, not a new payment project. Where a licensed provider already covers that market, the change is on our side.
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New customer segments, same flow
One pay-by-bank flow serves a consumer paying for a basket and a business customer paying an invoice, whether the buyer is a household or a financial services business.
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The honest limit
Where no licensed provider covers a market yet, customers in that market cannot pay by bank, and no software layer changes it.
The same pay-by-bank flow across business types
- Online shop
Pay-by-bank payments sit next to cards at the checkout. Customers pay from their own bank and the shop ships against the confirmed credit.
- Invoiced services
A studio sends an invoice carrying a pay-by-bank link. The customer pays the exact amount with the reference attached, so nothing gets matched by hand.
- Bookings and deposits
A clinic takes a deposit when a customer books. That deposit is a pay-by-bank payment the customer approves in their own banking app.
- Wholesale orders
A small wholesaler invoices business customers who would rather pay by bank than by card. Both financial teams read the same data on incoming payments.
Before going live
What you need in place
Three pieces, and only the third one is software.
- 01
A C2B account your business owns
The account receiving customer payments is opened by your business directly with a licensed EMI or bank. It is your balance, inside your own financial operations.
- 02
An open banking provider agreement
Payment initiation is regulated, so it runs on a licensed provider's authorisation. The agreement is signed directly, or through the platform where that provider already serves your market.
- 03
One integration on your side
Sandbox keys first, production keys once the two agreements above are done. The API surface is identical, so you get live payments on a credential change.
Onboarding is three-sided today and moves at the speed of the slowest counterparty. The account issuer checks your business and the licensed provider runs its own risk review, so live payments only make sense after both. One onboarding across all three is a direction of travel, not today's reality. Earlier-stage teams start on the open banking for startups page.
FAQ
Questions owners ask
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Who holds the money?
Your business does. Funds move from the customer's bank account to the C2B account your business holds at a licensed EMI or bank. viaBanking is software: it does not accept payments for you, does not hold client money and never has your funds.
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When is a payment final?
Finality is decided by the banks and the scheme a payment runs on, not by your checkout. In practice a payment is good once the credit is confirmed on your C2B account, and that is the event your financial records follow. Before then it can still be pending, and at some banks a customer can withdraw consent.
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Do we need a licence?
No. The PIS and AIS authorisations belong to the licensed partner institutions. Your business contracts for software and access, and keeps its own merchant obligations: tax, consumer rules, financial records and the terms it publishes to customers.
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What data does our business see about a customer?
The data needed to run the payment and the financial books: reference, amount, currency, status history, the bank the customer chose to pay from, the confirmed credit event. Not their balance data, not their statement data, not their other data.
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Can we keep card payments as well?
Yes, and most businesses do. Pay-by-bank payments sit next to the methods already on your checkout and the customer picks. Adding pay by bank removes nothing.
Let your customers pay by bank
Tell us what your business sells and which market comes first. We open the sandbox so your pay-by-bank checkout can be built, and start the provider and account onboarding in parallel. The confirmation step is documented on the account verification page.
viaBanking is a software and technology provider. Regulated payment initiation and account information services are delivered by licensed partner institutions. viaBanking does not hold an AIS or PIS licence, does not accept payments on behalf of a business, does not execute bank payments and does not hold or move funds.