By <a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://tink.com/">Tink</a>

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We’re teaming up with payments provider Tribe in a channel partnership for open banking technology. The partnership will enable Tribe to combine its issuer and acquirer services, with Tink’s open banking payments – enabling Tribe’s customers to access both traditional and more innovative payment solutions. 

<a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://www.tribepayments.com/">Tribe</a> is a pioneering payments technology company – enabling banks, fintechs and acquirers to offer innovative payments services without compromising quality, speed or scalability. Now, Tribe is teaming up with Tink in a channel partnership for open banking technology, enabling Tribe to combine its issuer and acquirer services, with <a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://tink.com/products/payment-initiation/">payment initiation services</a> (PIS), <a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://tink.com/products/transactions/">transactions</a> and <a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://tink.com/products/account-check/">account check</a> services powered by Tink.

In the first step of the partnership, Tribe’s UK customers now have seamless access to traditional payment methods alongside open banking payments – with<a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://tink.com/products/transactions/"> transactions</a> and <a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://tink.com/products/account-check/">account check</a> to follow. Through its issuer and acquirer processing platform, ISAAC, Tribe’s customers can simply choose the payments modules that suit them.

Frictionless and invisible payments

‘There are 3 million consumers and businesses in the UK already using open banking enabled products and services in their everyday lives,’ said Alex Reddish, Chief Commercial Officer at Tribe. ‘We’re keen to help our clients capitalise on this opportunity to build even more compelling propositions in this space, strongly believing that open banking will play a huge part in enabling the frictionless and, eventually, invisible payment experiences of the future. Tribe was the first issuer processor to have launched initial compliance APIs for fintechs to harness the power of Open Banking without developing their own APIs, and we’re keen to continue investing in further Open Banking functionality. That’s why we’re excited about our partnership with Tink; we can now offer easy access to broader opportunities through a market-leading partner.’

PIS expansion across Europe

At the end of 2020 Tink closed a funding round of  €85 million to help fuel our expansion of payments services across Europe. During 2021 we will increase staff by 50%, adding 200 new recruits to our almost 400 employees today. Many of these new recruits will focus on doubling our market presence for PIS services, by expanding operations to 10 European countries. Tink now processes around 1.5 million payment transactions per month, for clients including Swedish digital mailbox provider Kivra, used by 4 million adults among a total population of 10 million, and payment fintech Lydia, used by more than 5 million customers in France. 

We’re proud to be partnering with Tribe to help give more businesses access to innovative payment solutions. The advancements in mobile payments in recent years, combined with the strong development of open banking infrastructure and regulation, makes it more compelling than ever for payment providers to adopt open banking payments. Our aim is to be the backbone of payments services providers across Europe, and enable inclusive, streamlined, fast-settlement, low-cost payments solutions.

Find out how you could build the future of financial services with <a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://tink.com/">Tink</a>.

Tink and Tribe partner for open banking payments

By <a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://tink.com/">Tink</a>

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A whopping 70% of C-level financial executives see the opportunities of open banking, while just 45% of product owners feel the same. So why the disconnect? Tink’s latest research report  dives into the huge task banks face aligning their organisations to make the most of open banking, and how buy-in differs across the business.

There’s a big difference in how the open banking opportunity is viewed within financial institutions, at least that’s what our most recent research tells us. In our new open banking report, <a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://tink.com/resources/reports/taking-advantage-open-banking/?utm_source=press&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=&amp;utm_content=uk">Taking advantage of open banking</a>, we spoke to 290 financial executives across Europe, and found that while there is clearly a lot of positive thinking about open banking, a lack of internal alignment risks holding them back from realising its full potential.

The stats reveal diverging views on everything from open banking capabilities, its value and the skills needed across different parts of the business. This organisational divide reflects the sheer size and scale of the task banks are facing to transform their operations to become open banking ready and meet new customer needs.

Varying opinions   

More than two-thirds (70%) of the C-suite see the vast opportunities that open banking presents right across their organisation, with 67% also believing the benefits outweigh the potential costs. But the results paint a more varied picture across other parts of the business.

Most channel owners (63%), responsible for the online, mobile or developer interfaces, also recognise the open banking opportunity across their organisation, but in contrast, less than half (45%) of product owners feel the same way. 

Access to talent

One explanation for the different levels of buy in could be how departments feel they are resourced. The majority of respondents in financial institutions are positive about having the talent available to execute their open banking objectives (59% on average). IT being the most confident (65%), followed by management (61%) and digital or mobile banking channels (60%). Just 43% of product owners are confident their team has the required resources to capitalise on open banking. 

This could also explain a lack of agreement on whether the products and services being offered to customers take full advantage of the company’s open banking capabilities. The overwhelming majority of those in IT (67%) say yes – in stark contrast to under a third (32%) of executives in the digital and mobile banking department who feel the same. 

Banks’ pole position

But despite this perceived lack of internal harmony, banks remain in the best position to offer integrated open banking services. As custodians of money and providers of financial services they already have a solid foundation of customers that trust them and are therefore willing to share data with them.

At the same time we shouldn’t underestimate the enormity of the task ahead, for financial institutions to transform their operations to become open banking ready. It is to be expected that there are differing levels of buy-in for open banking across the organisation, and pockets of the business that may lag behind in embracing the opportunity. 

 As those in the C-suite evolve their open banking strategy, they will need to be alert to any potential open banking knowledge or culture gaps that can result in missed opportunities.  Whether it be through strategic fintech partnerships, acquisitions or internal re-alignment, banks can make sure they are in the race to create the best possible customer experience from open banking. 

It’s not about being a first-mover anymore – the industry has already passed that point. It’s now about being a fast-follower. 

<img class="wp-image-368039 aligncenter" src="https://www.innovatefinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/0-6-300x255.png" alt="" width="481" height="409" />

To dive deeper into the differing buy-in across organisations and the steps to taking advantage of open banking, check out our <a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://tink.com/resources/reports/taking-advantage-open-banking/?utm_source=press&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=&amp;utm_content=uk">full report.</a>

Are banks aligned internally to take advantage of open banking?

By <a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://tink.com/">Tink</a>

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Open banking platform Tink continues its expansion across Europe with the acquisition of the aggregation platform of OpenWrks, a leading UK-based provider of open banking applications. This move strengthens Tink’s connectivity coverage and solidifies its market-leading position in the UK. The acquisition is also part of a strategic partnership where OpenWrks will power its applications across Europe through the Tink platform. 

Stockholm, London, 21 September 2020: Through the acquisition, Tink will enhance its open banking platform by increasing its bank connectivity in the UK. In addition to strengthened coverage of personal account data, Tink will expand its UK connectivity into business account data. The launch of UK business account data will be made available to all Tink customers later this year. The acquisition brings significant fintech and SME customers — including Xero, <a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://www.liberis.com/">Liberis</a> Finance and Snoop — that following the deal will be powered by Tink’s open banking platform. 

The acquisition is also part of a strategic partnership between Tink and OpenWrks, where OpenWrks will power its suite of applications through Tink’s platform connectivity. The partnership will enable OpenWrks to accelerate the growth of its affordability and data services business internationally, and make its MyBudget and data services available to core European markets early in 2021 in response to growing demand.

Rafa Plantier, UK &amp; Ireland country manager, Tink, said: “We are devotees of pioneers. OpenWrks was the first platform to be licensed in the UK, and is arguably the most complete in coverage as it handles more than a third of the country's account aggregation volume. The UK is a key market for us and we have grown both our customer base and workforce significantly here since we opened our London office in 2019. The UK is where we see national and global champions of their segments, such as our partners NatWest and PayPal, that put open banking at the centre of their digital strategies.”

Steve Bradford, co-founder and CCO, OpenWrks, continued: “Our strategy at OpenWrks is to focus all our energy on delivering market-leading consumer applications and data services built on open banking infrastructure. With this in mind, we have been evaluating open banking providers over the past 12 months and we believe that Tink's platform presents the best opportunity for us to achieve our three year mission of helping ten million people in the UK and globally understand what they can afford to save, invest, borrow and repay.”

Mitul Sudra, co-founder and CTO, OpenWrks, added: “Tink and OpenWrks are driven by the same values and we believe that Tink has the most mature platform in the ecosystem today. They have a deep understanding of open data, a mature, sophisticated platform and impressive bank coverage that allows us to enter new markets through a turnkey solution. This combination means that Tink is the outstanding partner for us and, as part of the wider collaboration, we are delighted that our UK connectivity will become part of their global platform.”

Tink acquires OpenWrks aggregation platform and enters strategic partnership

Europe's leading open banking platform provider, Tink was founded in 2012 with the aim of changing the banking industry for the better. We have built Europe’s most robust open banking platform – with the broadest, deepest connectivity and powerful services that create value out of the financial data. We offer the tools that allow anyone – from big banks and fintechs to startups – to build the future of financial services across Europe.

Tink

Europe's leading open banking platform provider, Tink was founded in 2012 with the aim of changing the banking industry for the better. We have built Europe’s most robust open banking platform – with the broadest, deepest connectivity and powerful services that create value out of the financial data. We offer the tools that allow anyone – from big banks and fintechs to startups – to build the future of financial services across Europe.