Payment Initiation in the UK

Last May, we launched Plaid in the UK with the goal of making money easier for everyone, no matter where they bank or live. With Open Banking, Plaid has helped more people in the UK take control of their financial lives through our work with apps like Cleo and Sage. Today, we’re excited to take our mission further and launch Payment Initiation in the UK, a convenient way to fund new accounts and get more people using fintech faster.

Payment Initiation enables your users to make real-time payments without manually entering their account number and sort code, or leaving your app. These in-app payments allow your users to fund their accounts in a seamless and secure manner, and at a low cost. Payment Initiation is an easy way for users to fund their account, make online payments, and pay invoices all from your app or website, whether you’re building a neobank or a digital wallet.

How Payment Initiation works

1. Initiate a payment: Customer confirms the amount and payee information that has been pre-populated by you.

2. Select a bank: Your customer selects the bank from which to initiate the payment. Plaid supports most banks and neobanks in the UK.

3. Authenticate bank account: Your customer authenticates their account via automatic app-to-app redirects using Open Banking APIs to complete the payment. Funds are instantly pushed to the recipient account.

4. Confirm payment initiation: With the customer’s explicit consent, Plaid returns the status of the payment, and your customer seamlessly returns to your application. You can always check a payment status in the developer dashboard.

Get started
Setting up Payment Initiation is easy. If you’re new to Plaid, please contact our Sales team to get access today. If you’re an existing customer, please reach out to your Growth Account Manager and check out our docs here.