Variable recurring payments through licensed open banking providers
viaBanking routes each collection request to a licensed open banking provider, normalises the response and confirms on your C2B account that the money actually arrived.
Mandate at the bank
The customer's own bank holds the recurring authorisation
Provider dependent
VRP availability follows the licensed provider and bank
Per collection confirmation
Each credit checked on your C2B account
One integration
Single API for one-off and recurring collections
Six pieces of the recurring stack
Recurring reuses the initiation shape documented on the payment initiation API page, with a mandate reference in place of a fresh authorisation each time.
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Collection requests
Each charge against an existing mandate is sent as one request carrying the mandate reference, amount and your own reference. viaBanking transfers it to the licensed provider involved.
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Mandate references
The provider returns a mandate reference after the customer completes setup at their bank. Your system stores it against the customer record, and viaBanking keeps the mapping that routes later collections.
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Confirmation per charge
Read-only API connectivity to your C2B account confirms each individual credit. A mandate that worked last month tells you nothing about this month, so every collection is confirmed on its own.
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Availability data
viaBanking reports which of your connected licensed providers support at request time recurring collections and which customer banks they reach. That picture changes, so the data is read at request time.
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Failure signalling
A collection can fail at the provider, at the customer's bank or against the mandate limits. Each outcome arrives with the originating code, so your dunning logic can separate the cases.
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History per mandate
Every collection attempt is listed with its timestamps, provider, status transitions and matched credit. Finance staff can answer a customer query about one period without a support ticket.
Five stages, one setup
The same status split runs across every other payment shape covered on the aggregator overview: bank authorisation and observed credit are two events.
- 01
Mandate setup
The customer authorises a recurring mandate inside their own bank's application, through a licensed open banking provider. Limits such as a maximum per collection and a validity period are shown and agreed there.
- 02
Reference returned
The provider passes the mandate reference back through viaBanking to your system. No authorisation is held by viaBanking: the customer's bank holds the mandate, and the customer can act on it there.
- 03
Collection request
When a charge falls due, your billing system calls viaBanking with the mandate reference and the amount. No customer interaction happens at this point, provided the amount sits inside the agreed limits.
- 04
Intermediate status
The licensed provider initiates the collection and reports whether the customer's bank accepted it. viaBanking normalises that response into an intermediate status. Acceptance at the bank and money on your account are still two events.
- 05
Final status
Read-only API connectivity to your C2B account shows the credit for this specific collection. viaBanking matches it by reference and amount, then issues the final status your billing system uses to mark the period paid.
Who does what
| Who | What they do |
|---|---|
| The merchant | Runs billing schedules, calls for each collection, stores mandate references and marks periods paid. |
| The licensed open banking provider | Sets the mandate up with the customer's bank under its own licence and initiates every later collection. |
| End user’s account issuing bank | Captures the end user’s payment consent, performs strong customer authentication and sends the authorised payment from the end user’s account. |
| The EMI or bank holding the C2B account | Credits each incoming collection and provides the read-only API connectivity used to confirm it. |
| viaBanking | Routes collection requests, normalises responses, confirms each credit and keeps the history per mandate. |
Four reasons a mandate beats a saved card
These arguments sit alongside the pay-in and pay-out cases spelled out on the merchants page.
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Fewer involuntary failures
Card subscriptions break on expiry, reissue and blocked ranges. A bank mandate carries none of those renewal events.
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Amounts that vary
Usage billing, metered invoices and variable subscription tiers fit a mandate with limits rather than a fixed schedule, which keeps pricing changes out of your payments integration.
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One provider set, one contract
Recurring support differs by provider and by customer bank. Routing across several licensed providers from a single contract widens the share of customers you can put on a mandate.
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Account side stays yours
Recurring volume concentrates on one account, so the choice of EMI or bank matters more. That choice remains yours and does not follow whichever provider supports mandates.
Six behaviours worth building against
| Topic | Handling |
|---|---|
| Limits | A mandate carries the maximum per collection and the period limits agreed at the customer's bank. Requests above them are refused there. |
| Revocation | There are situations where a customer can stop a mandate at their bank. viaBanking then reports no credit for that collection. |
| Retries | Retry timing is yours to set. Each attempt goes as a fresh request and is reported separately against the same mandate reference. |
| Mandate validity | Validity is set at the customer's bank, and your system reads the value returned with the reference. |
| Reference data | Each collection carries your own reference, which appears on the incoming credit and lets viaBanking match it to a billing period. |
| Sandbox | Sandbox mandates reproduce acceptance, refusal above limits and stopped mandates, so your dunning paths are testable before launch. |
Four billing shapes that fit
If your volumes sit inside the tiers on the pricing page, recurring adds nothing on top of the base agreement.
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Usage based software
Platforms invoicing on metered consumption, where the amount differs every period and a fixed debit amount does not fit.
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Subscription commerce
Merchants with tiered plans, add-ons and mid-period upgrades that change the amount due without a new setup step.
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Account funding
Services where customers top up a balance on a schedule they set once, with each top-up confirmed before the balance updates.
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Lending and instalments
Firms collecting scheduled repayments, where a missed collection has to be recognised from a credit that never arrived.
Three prerequisites
- 01
A viaBanking agreement
The agreement covers API access, routing across your providers, the dashboard, callbacks and support. Recurring collections use the same contract as one-off payments, with no separate product to buy.
- 02
Provider access through viaBanking
Your agreement with viaBanking gives access to integrated licensed open banking providers without separate merchant contracts with them. We handle any required provider onboarding for your business; the providers retain responsibility for regulated payment initiation. For recurring collections, the provider must support mandates at the relevant end user banks.
- 03
A C2B account with API credentials
Onboarding with the EMI or bank holding that account is direct with the institution. Read-only API credentials from it let viaBanking confirm each individual collection.
Straight answers on recurring collections
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How does a mandate differ from a card subscription?
Authorisation sits at the customer's bank with limits the customer saw and agreed, rather than on a card that expires or gets reissued. Each collection also produces a bank credit you can confirm on your own account.
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Is VRP available for all of my customers?
No. Recurring support depends on each licensed provider and on the customer's bank, and the reachable set changes over time. viaBanking reports current availability so your billing logic can fall back where a mandate is not possible.
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Does viaBanking hold the mandate?
No. The mandate is authorised and held at the customer's own bank, set up through a licensed open banking provider. viaBanking stores the reference needed to route later collections and the history of what each collection did.
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What marks a collection as paid?
The credit observed on your C2B account for that specific collection. Acceptance reported by the customer's bank is a different fact, and treating it as payment is how recurring revenue gets overstated at period close.
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What does it take to run the first collection?
A signed viaBanking agreement, access through viaBanking to a licensed provider that supports mandates, and a C2B account with read-only API access. Sandbox mandates are available at once, while live timing depends on the provider and the account institution.
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Which businesses should look at this first?
Companies with a recurring bill that changes amount, and companies losing revenue to card renewal failures. Volume helps: the case is strongest where the number of active mandates makes manual reconciliation of each period impractical.
Check VRP availability for your customer banks
Tell us which customer banks matter most and how your billing amounts vary. We will check what your connected licensed providers support at request time for recurring collections, then show one mandate and one confirmed collection in sandbox.
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 hold or move funds.
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