Pay by Bank / A2A

Also called account to account payments, A2A, open banking payments, bank pay

Customers pay straight from their bank account instead of a card. Cheaper for you, real in the UK, still about 1.5% of US transactions.

What it is

Pay by bank, also called account-to-account or A2A, lets a customer authorize a payment directly from their bank account at checkout, typically by logging into their bank through a secure connection rather than entering card details. The merchant avoids card interchange entirely; the customer avoids entering a card number. Adoption abroad is genuine. Trustly passed 120 million users globally, with roughly 64 million in Europe and 15 million in the UK — up 34% year over year and around a third of UK adults. Trustly says it will process $100 billion annually. eBay invested in TrueLayer in February 2026, NAB acquired Banked in May 2026, and Amazon pushed pay-by-bank in the UK. US adoption is a different story. Over 100 million US consumers have granted third-party bank-data access and roughly 30% used pay by bank in the prior year, but pay-by-bank accounts for only about 1.5% of US consumer transactions against roughly 30% for debit. The gap between intention and behavior is stark: 46% of US consumers say they'd use open banking payments for at least one purchase type, and 11% have actually completed one.

Why it matters to your business

For invoiced and recurring payments over a few hundred dollars, offering a bank payment option alongside cards is straightforwardly good economics and costs you nothing to add. For your walk-in counter, it's not a 2026 conversation. The framing that actually works with customers is not "pay by bank." It's a lower price for paying from a bank account — the same dual pricing logic that works on cash. Consumers respond to a discount, not to a rail.

Where it gets contested

The honest problem with pay by bank in the US is that it's solving the merchant's problem, not the consumer's. Consumers get no rewards, no chargeback rights and no float. Merchants get lower cost. Absent an incentive, consumers have no reason to switch, and the 46%-willing versus 11%-done gap is exactly what that looks like in data. The second issue is that pay-by-bank's cost advantage may not be durable. The CFPB's open banking rule — the legal foundation for third-party bank data access — is enjoined and being rewritten, with the central fight over whether banks can charge data-access fees. If aggregators start paying banks for data, pay-by-bank's economics compress toward debit's. Any promise that bank payments will always cost pennies is a promise nobody can currently keep. The fair counterweight is that pay by bank wins decisively in specific contexts: large tickets, expected or recurring payments, and situations where nobody expects rewards. HOA dues, marina slip fees, tuition, insurance, rent, B2B invoices and contractor progress payments are genuinely better on this rail. It loses at a bar and a boutique, and pretending otherwise is how this gets oversold.

How to check it yourself

Segment your revenue: which portion is invoiced, recurring or over $500? That's your pay-by-bank addressable volume. Ask your provider what ACH or bank-payment options they support on invoices, and consider a small discount for using it rather than expecting adoption for free.

Receipts

Claims above that are checkable, with where to check them. Published so you do not have to take anyone's word for it.

Trustly has 120M+ users globally (~64M Europe, 15M UK, +34% YoY, about a third of UK adults); 100M+ US consumers have granted third-party bank data access and ~30% used pay by bank in the prior year, but pay by bank is only ~1.5% of US consumer transactions versus debit at ~30%
pymnts.com ↗
46% of US consumers say they would use open banking payments for at least one purchase type, but only 11% have actually completed one
pymnts.com ↗
Plaid Transfer spans RTP, FedNow, same-day ACH, wires and Request-for-Payment through one API and processes $1B+ monthly
plaid.com ↗