TrueLayer says it has recorded a massive increase in consumers using Open Banking Payment Initiation (PI) to pay for goods and services during the lockdown.
832% increase in Open Banking payments during COVID-19 lockdown
PI is a new form of online payment which allows payments to be made directly via a customer’s online banking, meaning transaction fees are typically lower than other means of online payment.
The majority of PI growth (88%) was from people with bank accounts held at traditional financial institutions such as Lloyds or Barclays, with account holders at challenger banks such as Monzo and Revolut accounting for 12% of growth, it reports.
TrueLayer says this indicates a broader acceptance of Open Banking beyond the more technologically progressive users at neo banks.
Prior to the lockdown in the UK, TrueLayer had previously recorded a 43% month on month increase in PI adoption.
“These statistics reveal that even during a crisis people are willing to quickly embrace technological innovation if they believe it makes their life better or more convenient,” says Shefali Roy, COO and CCO of TrueLayer.
“Payment Initiation obviously has some way to go before it accounts for a significant proportion of the payments market, nevertheless, this surge in growth appears to mark a step change in adoption and it is yet another unforeseen impact on consumer behaviour caused by the Pandemic.”
Roy notes that growth has not fallen, meaning that those who began using Open Banking during lockdown are continuing to do so after changes in restrictions.
“The surge during lockdown has been remarkable and has not been confined to any one group of people – it is very much a broad based trend,” she says. “However, perhaps the most interesting result our analyses revealed is that growth has not dropped off – meaning that those who began using Payment Initiation during lockdown are continuing to do so after restrictions were eased.”
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