The three companies were introduced through Mastercard’s Fintech Express programme, which gives start-ups and emerging brands support and assistance for every stage of their growth and transformation, from market entry to global expansion. Through the programme, fintechs are able to leverage Aion Bank’s ECB licence, compliance and regulatory expertise and Vodeno’s VODENO Cloud Platform (VCP), one of the most comprehensive banking platforms, operating entirely in the cloud.

Tricount allows its users to split bills quickly and easily, categorise expenses by type and settle outstanding balances via integrated payment methods. The free-to-use app revolutionised expense management when it launched in 2010 and has grown to become popular with young people who ‘make a tricount’ whenever they need to split bills. Tricount currently serves more than 5.2 million registered users. The new in-app payment functionality removes the final layer of friction in the expense management process and makes calculating and splitting bills quick and simple. Tricount users can now send money in the app directly from their bank account, anytime and fully remotely without the need to share IBANs.

Tricount’s new feature is powered by Aion Bank and Vodeno, who offer white-label embedded finance solutions to financial and non-financial businesses. Aion Bank and Vodeno will link the Tricount app to users’ bank accounts and initiate payments. Tricount users who want to make direct bank transfer payments in the app will now be able to do this in one seamless experience. Mastercard Open Banking technology serves as the backbone that allows Tricount users with a Belgian bank account to send and receive funds.*

Guillebert de Dorlodot, who co-founded Tricount with Jonathan Fallon said: “We launched Tricount to make sharing of bills between friends and family easier. For the last 10 years, we have observed triple digit annual growth. Repayments with direct bank transfers was a long awaited feature for our Belgian users, and we believe this is one of the first PSD2 integrations that truly makes sense for consumers.”

Kim Van Esbroeck, Country Manager of Aion Bank Belgium added: “Together with Vodeno and, in partnership with Mastercard, we offer innovative, embedded banking services to both regulated and non-regulated entities. Tricount is a good example of our ability to offer payments-as-a-service and innovate this space. Our entire spectrum of products include: deposits, investments and lending together with cards, payments and KYC through our open APIs that can easily connect with any fintech’s frontend.”

Henri Dewaerheijd, Country Manager, Mastercard BeLux said: “We are pleased that our fintech partners Aion Bank, Vodeno and Tricount have chosen the Mastercard Open Banking Connect network to enable safe and easy transfer of funds between users. The application of (PSD2) Payment Initiation as a service is a first for Mastercard in Belgium. We are looking forward to seeing this technology scale in fintechs or merchant apps.”