Anubhav Pradhan from ShiftMate joined PAYMENTS FM to talk about open banking, pay by bank, merchant adoption, and what payment teams should look at before they scale it.
We are launching the State of Payments survey. It takes about four minutes to complete, and anonymous responses are welcome. We will publish the results at the end of the year.
Why this matters
Pay by bank sounds simple: lower fees, direct account access, and another way for customers to pay. In practice, merchants still have to earn the conversion.
Customers need to understand the flow. The bank connection has to feel safe. Authentication has to work. Refunds and support have to be clear. Finance needs to see the cost benefit after any change in conversion.
That makes open banking a product, payments, finance, risk, and operations topic at the same time.
What to watch
Start with the signals that show whether pay by bank works for real customers.
Conversion versus cards
Bank authentication drop off
Coverage by market
Payment cost by method
Refund handling
Dispute and support volume
Settlement timing
Repeat usage
What it means for your team
Open banking can be useful when the customer has a reason to choose it. That reason may be speed, a better account funding flow, lower cost shared with the customer, or a use case where cards are a bad fit.
Product needs to design the moment where pay by bank makes sense. Engineering needs reliable bank connections and fallback paths. Finance needs cost and settlement visibility. Support needs clear answers when a bank payment fails or a refund is requested.
What to do next
Before pushing volume, make the operating model clear.
Pick the markets to test first
Compare conversion by segment
Review failed authentication flows
Define refund ownership
Track support tickets
Measure net cost impact
Keep card fallback available
Questions to ask internally
Where does pay by bank improve the customer journey?
Which customers have a clear reason to use it?
How does conversion compare with cards?
What happens when authentication fails?
Who owns refunds and support cases?
Does the cost saving survive the full customer journey?
Guest perspective
Adoption depends on trust and timing. The payment method has to fit the customer moment.
Lower fees help, but merchants still need conversion, coverage, refunds, and support to work.
Bank authentication is part of the product experience. Drop off there can erase the benefit.
Open banking works best when teams measure the full journey from checkout to settlement.
Listen or watch
Resources
Related episodes
Benefits of Payment Orchestration with Zubin Vandrevala, Gr4vy
Payments Data for Business Success with Albert Drouart, Pagos
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