Token, an open banking payments platform, has partnered with NatWest Group to offer variable recurring payments (VRPs) for non-sweeping services.
Charles Damen, chief product officer at Token, made the announcement alongside Dan Globerson, head of open banking at Natwest Group. The announcement came as part of one of the first sets of sessions at Open Banking Expo in London. Globerson moderated the panel on the topic ‘The new normal in open banking: What lies beyond VRPs and sweeping?‘.
Token becomes the sixth VRP payment provider that NatWest Group has made an agreement with. Since May this year, TrueLayer, GoCardless, Crezco, Yapily and Tink have also partnered with the major UK bank. Charles Damen said: “VRP came through the CMA9 mandate as a compliance element, but the technology can be used for wider applications – the non-sweeping use cases.”
Dan Globerson also spoke on why NatWest was making the move. He said: “As a relationship bank for a digital world, we’re committed to offering innovative and convenient payment methods to businesses and consumers.”
“VRP brings greater simplicity, control and flexibility to payments. It’s fast, cost-efficient and uses the very latest in bank API technology.”
The future of VRP payments
Todd Clyde, CEO of Token, explained that the agreement is a “massive development for Token, and for the future of payments”.
“If financial institutions and fintechs work together, we have a tremendous opportunity to create a balanced, practical approach that will deliver on the promise for VRP to enhance consumers’ and businesses’ financial lives,” he added.
“Get it right, and VRP will ignite explosive growth for open banking-enabled account-to-account payments. I think 2023 will be a very exciting year.”
This could potentially be the first agreement of many for Token. Damen said during the panel: “We’re very proud to announce today, a relationship with NatWest for non-sweeping services. But we’re in talks with a lot of the other banks.”
Such talks suggest that the UK can expect further developments concerning VRPs for non-sweeping use cases in the future. Despite the limited examples of this, Token’s news is not the first concerning NatWest’s use of VRPs. Earlier this year, NatWest Group became the first UK-based bank to offer VRP for ‘non-sweeping’ use cases. The bank made these non-sweeping VRP payments to Charity Right and lettings service provider Pink Chilli.
During the opening session at Open Banking Expo, Clyde also announced a partnership with Computop, a global payments provider. He said: “I’m thrilled to announce today a partnership between Token and Computop. They are a leading payment service provider in Germany with 38 per cent market share.
“They already offer 350 local payment methods through their gateway. So, why do they need another one? The reason is the revenue and margins they make on alternative payment methods pale in comparison to what they make on a card.
“So they’re partnering with Token to launch their own private label account-to-account payment capability to meet merchant’s demands. They also want to generate more revenue and higher margins than they make on other local payment methods.”
Todd Clyde also announced the launch of Token’s ‘Variable Recurring Payments Survey‘ report during the talk and shared some of the results.
