The latest e-wallet solution to hit the market will reportedly enable open banking providers to overcome the various challenges they face when going to market.
The e-wallet has been launched by the UK-based payments solutions provider Clear Junction, which has been developing an improved e-wallet solution that adds value to open banking providers specifically.
Payment initiation service (PIS) licences have a habit of being both very specific and hard to come by and do not enable providers to hold merchant funds. This means that merchants must strike an agreement with an open banking provider and a separate arrangement with a bank or a payment service provider.
However, with Clear Junction’s e-wallet for merchants in tow, open banking providers that are both partnered and integrated with Clear Junction can approach merchants and simultaneously offer them open banking technology and settlement and collection accounts. Thus, their customers can benefit from a solution which minimises the onboarding and integration effort required.
The new service
Clear Junction provides open banking providers with a master e-wallet through which they can generate sub e-wallets for each of their merchants. The merchants can send and receive payments in and out of their e-wallets (which are held and operated by Clear Junction and integrated into the open banking provider’s platform).
These e-wallets are connected to both Faster Payments and SEPA Instant payment rails meaning GBP and EUR payments are collected and reconciled instantaneously.
It serves as a complete solution that significantly enhances the customer offering of open banking providers; not only is the process quicker for them, it is quicker for their customers, making their offering more attractive with a minimum of fuss. This additional workflow efficiency is expected to further increase the competitiveness of open banking compared to card acquiring.
“The recent fee increase announced by Visa and Mastercard further emphasises the importance of open banking as the alternative for global merchants,” explains Berivan Demir, product and banking relationship director at Clear Junction.
“Through our new e-wallet offering, open banking providers are able to enhance their customer offering, making the entire process of sending and receiving funds quick and easy.
“Our roadmap includes implementation of localised IBANs across major European countries to streamline the local PIS collections very soon.”
