GoCardless makes the latest step in its open banking journey with the acquisition of Nordigen, a Latvia-based open banking data provider.
The company will incorporate Nordigen’s Europe-wide open banking connectivity within its account-to-account network, connecting with 2,300 banks in 31 countries across the continent.
Its latest acquisition, the terms of which have not been disclosed, aligns with GoCardless’ ambition to scale its bank payments network.
Nordigen is Europe’s first freemium open banking data provider, and the acquisition means the fintech will provide free open banking connectivity at scale, opening up self-serve access to account information services (AIS) to anyone who wishes to use them.
While the basic features will remain free to use, its upper-level suite of data products, including credit assessments, will be available under a premium.
“The Nordigen acquisition will take us to the next level,” comments Hiroki Takeuchi, co-founder and CEO of GoCardless. “By intelligently combining free, state-of-the-art open banking connectivity with deep payment expertise, we can now offer open banking-as-a-service to any developer, partner or fintech.”
Takeuchi predicts that open access will generate more experimentation, resulting in more compelling use cases as the technology comes to dominate a $416billion space in the industry.
“We realised early on that this technology would drive bank payments for decades to come and over the last 18 months, we’ve accelerated our push into open banking.”
Over the past 18 months, GoCardless has launched its open banking-enabled instant bank pay feature across multiple markets, as well as verified mandates, which combines AIS with direct debit to prevent fraud.
Its latest deal will enable the fintech to acquire in-house open banking connectivity, which it plans to use to expand its coverage and add new payment types, including variable recurring payments (VRP).
The deal is expected to close later in the summer.
