Category · Third-party role
An open banking provider is a licensed institution that connects a business to a bank under PSD2 or an equivalent framework. There are payment initiation service providers, account information service providers, and providers that hold both authorisations. This page covers the roles across the market, what providers do and do not confirm, and where viaBanking fits alongside them.
viaBanking is not an open banking provider. viaBanking is a software layer that connects a business to licensed providers.
Types
The market has three main provider roles. Each is a regulated role under PSD2 or an equivalent framework.
A licensed institution that initiates open banking payments from a payer's bank on the payer's instruction. Handles the regulated payment initiation step; does not hold the payer or the merchant funds.
Sits between the merchant and the payer's bank at initiation time.
A licensed institution that reads account information from a customer's bank on that customer's consent. Handles the regulated data access step; does not initiate payments.
In the viaBanking flow, AIS is used to verify that a credit has landed on the recipient's own C2B account.
A licensed institution that holds both a PIS and an AIS authorisation. Covers both payment initiation and account data access, usually across a large bank list per market.
Common when a business needs both payment and data flows from the same partner.
Signals
This distinction is where a merchant's release decision lives.
What providers confirm
What providers usually do not confirm
Why aggregation exists
Coverage, onboarding fit, risk appetite and commercials all vary across providers. Serious merchants land on more than one.
Every open banking provider ships a bank list. A payer's bank may be reachable through one provider and not another; expanding across new markets often means adding new providers.
Different providers work with different C2B account issuers and different EMIs. A business may be a fit for one provider's account issuer and out of scope for another's.
Providers apply their own risk models to new merchants. Being accepted by one provider does not mean being accepted by every provider.
Pricing and volume tiers differ per open banking provider. The commercial fit for a merchant depends on its expected volume and the account issuer setup.
Where viaBanking fits
viaBanking is a software aggregation layer that connects a business to licensed open banking providers on one integration. It routes each open banking payment initiation to a provider that reaches the target bank, and it normalises the callbacks so the merchant application reads one shape across providers.
On top of the provider layer, the platform adds C2B account credit verification. Once the payer's bank has moved the funds, the platform confirms, via the account provider's API in read-only mode, that the credit has actually landed on the merchant's C2B account. The merchant releases the order on that signal, on the merchant's own decision.
Onboarding today is three-sided. The C2B account is opened directly with a licensed account issuer. The provider agreement can be direct or, where the provider is already in the viaBanking network, arranged through the platform. A single-onboarding experience across providers is a direction of travel, not the reality today.
The merchant-side signal
Open banking providers confirm that the payer completed the flow. Whether the funds have actually landed on the merchant's C2B account is a separate signal, delivered by the account issuer or a layer above the providers. The full walkthrough sits on the open banking solutions page.
Choosing
Five dimensions that come up in most provider reviews. Neutral, not a ranking of specific companies.
Match the payer bank list against the provider's coverage; where a bank is reachable through more than one provider, having options improves reliability.
Providers integrate with different C2B account issuers. The merchant is best served by a provider whose issuer network fits the merchant's needs.
Consent screens vary per provider. A cleaner flow reduces payer drop-off in a pay-by-bank checkout.
Providers ship different callback shapes. Consistency across providers is often the job of a layer above.
Regulated counterparties differ in incident response, SLA behaviour and support channels. Merchants review this before signing.
Financial data
An open banking provider is the licensed access channel for a range of financial data and financial workflows. Access to financial data across banks is what makes open banking a data category and not just a payment category.
Payment initiation pattern
The licensed provider requests the payer's financial account to initiate a payment. No financial statement data is returned to the merchant across this pattern, only the payment status. The customer's bank remains the source of truth for the underlying financial data.
Account information pattern
The licensed provider reads specific financial data fields at the customer's bank on the customer's consent. The merchant gets access to those specific financial data fields through the provider API, subject to the licence and the scope of the consent.
New financial services can be built on top of the data access: budgeting apps that read the customer's transaction data across accounts, lending products that use the financial data to underwrite, treasury tools that pull financial data across corporate bank accounts. Every one of these financial data use cases sits behind explicit customer consent at the bank, and every one of them talks to the bank through a licensed provider API. viaBanking works with the payment side of open banking today; a wider financial data solution across providers can be built on top of the same aggregation solution over time. The platform's scope at the merchant surface today is limited to the confirmed credit signal into the C2B account, and the customer's own bank remains the source of truth for any financial statement data or financial balance data.
New markets
Using an open banking provider across new markets adds new dimensions. A new market means a new bank list, a new consent screen per bank, a new set of financial regulations at the local level, and a new operational reality when a customer support case comes in from a new time zone.
Merchants that expand across markets typically use more than one provider to cover the local bank list. Use the aggregation layer to reach any new bank in any new market where a licensed provider is live.
New financial services in a new market often need new bank data fields or new provider APIs. Use the same data model across providers, so the merchant application does not fork per market.
Use the same merchant integration to reach any new bank in any new market. Access to a new bank behind an existing provider is a configuration change; a new provider is added on the same integration.
The data model documentation, the API reference, the sandbox behaviour and the callback shapes together tell the merchant whether the provider's data surface fits the workflow. A new provider that ships strong data documentation and a stable API surface is easier to integrate than an incumbent that ships fragmented data and inconsistent APIs.
Merchants often use a scoring sheet across providers before choosing. Data coverage per market. API stability across releases. Support responsiveness when a new bank goes live. Volume-based commercials. The final choice belongs to the merchant, and the answer often is not one provider but a mix, connected through a data-aware aggregation solution that presents them as one integration across every new market.
FAQ
No. viaBanking is a software layer. Regulated open banking services, such as payment initiation and account information, are conducted by licensed third-party providers. viaBanking connects merchants to these providers and adds C2B account credit verification on top.
A PIS provider handles the regulated payment initiation step at the payer's bank. An AIS provider handles the regulated account information access step. A single licensed institution can hold both authorisations and act as a combined provider.
No. Funds move between the payer's bank and the merchant's C2B account issuer on the banks' own rails. The provider handles the initiation or the data access step; it does not settle funds.
Yes. Merchants often work with more than one provider to reach more banks and more markets. A layer above the providers can present them as one integration to the merchant application.
Providers confirm that the payer completed the flow. They do not necessarily confirm that funds have landed on the merchant's C2B account. Credit verification is a separate signal, typically produced by the account issuer or a layer above the providers.
Talk to sales to shape a coverage plan across providers, or read the open banking platform page for the wider platform surface.
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 execute bank payments and does not move funds.
