TrueLayer, Europe’s leading open banking payments network, has reached the milestone of processing 1 million variable recurring payment (VRP) transactions in a single month.
This news comes just three months after TrueLayer announced it had processed 1 million VRP transactions in total.
The rapid surge in VRP adoption reflects an increasing recognition of the valuable opportunities that they present to both UK consumers and businesses. As this growth continues, VRPs are poised to significantly impact and potentially reshape traditional methods like direct debits and card-on-file payments.
VRPs are a transformative new payment option for regular transactions such as savings, credit card repayments and wallet top-ups, and the potential for other use cases including utilities, grocery shopping and donations. They offer an instant, flexible and secure alternative to the outdated mechanism of direct debits, which came into existence almost 60 years ago, and card-on-file payments, which often lack visibility and transparency for consumers.
TrueLayer customers using VRPs include The Credit Thing, which enables its customers to easily set up and manage their recurring repayments via VRP. SuperFi, a financial application that provides personalised debt support, employs VRPs so its users can better manage debt repayments.
Other applications of TrueLayer’s VRPs include enabling consumers to easily move money into high-yield savings accounts, and setting up regular top-ups for wallets.
During the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, it is more important than ever that consumers can better manage their money. Open banking, especially through the use of VRPs, is enabling consumers to do just that by offering them the tools that they need to optimise their savings and gain greater control over their financial well-being.
Last year, TrueLayer became the UK’s first open banking provider to support a wider range of VRPs beyond just the ‘sweeping’ of funds between two bank accounts belonging to the same individual. In May 2022, it announced a partnership with NatWest — the UK’s largest retail bank — to build commercial VRPs which can handle subscription and utility payments among others.
Earlier this year, TrueLayer set out an industry-first blueprint on how banks and fintechs can work together to deliver VRPs at scale. This would bring significant benefits to banks and their customers by going beyond the CMA’s current VRP mandate, which covers the transfer of funds between two accounts belonging to the same person.
Francesco Simoneschi, TrueLayer CEO and Co-founder said: “We’re incredibly excited about VRPs and their potential to change the way people set up recurring payments. Providing consumers with a more flexible, more secure means to manage their money.
“One million payments in one month is a major milestone, but we’re only just scratching the surface of what’s possible with VRP.”