Stripe Launches Its First Open Banking-Powered Payment Method in UK

Stripe has debuted an open banking-powered payment method and faster manual payouts in the United Kingdom.

In addition, the company has expanded Stripe Capital to the U.K., the company said in a Tuesday (May 21) press release.

U.K. businesses on Stripe will be the first to access Stripe’s first open banking-powered payment method, Pay by Bank, according to the release. This low-cost, real-time payment method allows consumers to pay directly from their bank account.

“Businesses selling high-value goods and services could save tens of thousands of pounds in payment fees every month,” the company said in the release.

Stripe will also debut in the U.K. a capability that enables businesses to receive earnings in a couple of hours, rather than the traditional two days, per the release. This offering will be expanded to the European Union (EU) and the United States later this year.

U.K. businesses will also have access to Stripe Capital, which allows small businesses to access flexible financing, according to the release. Stripe Capital uses a company’s transaction and business history on Stripe to proactively qualify it for financing.

This offering is now available to U.K. businesses that run directly on Stripe, the release said. Later this year, U.K. marketplaces and platforms using Stripe Connect will be able to offer Stripe Capital-powered financing to their customers.

“U.K. businesses are inventing and building, but getting access to capital at the right time is a rate limiter on their growth,” John Collison, co-founder of Stripe, said in the release. “The payments tools and financing options we’re launching today will help money move around the economy faster and make it easier for businesses to invest when they see an opportunity to grow.”

The announcement of these new offerings comes at the same time that Stripe is opening a new London location as part of a larger U.K. expansion. The new office will house 250 workers from the company’s engineering, sales, partnerships, financial compliance and operations departments.

Great Britain is Stripe’s second largest market, with more of the company’s users based in London than any other city around the world.