Payit by NatWest, the multi-award-winning open banking payments solution, has launched its newest feature, which allows business customers to send a domestic payment without needing the recipients’ bank account details by sending them a secure, single-use payment link. Developed for NatWest and RBS Business Banking Mobile users.

The link can be issued via email, text message, or social media channels and the recipient can ‘claim’ the link by selecting which account to credit the payment to via NatWest’s open banking payments service, Payit.

It provides customers with real-time visibility and full control over their payments with users receiving push notifications when a link is paid, failed, or expired. Users can also cancel active links at any time and resend expired ones.

The functionality is secured by the mobile app’s Multi-Factor Authentication (MTA), reducing the risk of a payment to an incorrect bank account. It is cost-effective as customers are charged no more than their standard payment fees for sending payments.

It has been designed to remove barriers to participation by ensuring no registration is required from both the payer and payee side of the journey. The functionality seeks to solve laborious business frustrations by allowing users to make a payment without needing the beneficiaries’ account details, saving significant time and admin.

Primarily for small and micro businesses, this new feature can cater to the needs of sole traders, smaller manufacturers, and those working in sectors such as health, beauty, and fitness. It can be used for sending low-value payments (up to £250) to pay suppliers and to pay for goods and materials.

The new functionality is also particularly useful for issuing non-card refunds, returning deposits, and sending one-off payments. Typically deemed time-consuming, but also difficult for small businesses to manage, it makes this process quicker and easier for customers.

Payit is continuously evolving the way businesses can make or take payments an example of this is another new feature that allows customers to add their QR codes to their digital wallet for quick and easy access whenever they need to get paid. 

Mike Elliff, CEO of Payit by NatWest says:

“Customer research has highlighted that businesses are time-poor. A significant chunk of admin time is spent communicating with clients and customers to obtain their payee information to send them money. With Payit, we’re helping customers save time previously lost on admin by allowing them to pay someone without needing to know their bank account details. As a leader in open banking payments, Payit ensures we provide customers with an easy and secure way to pay someone compared with alternative and traditional methods.”

Since launching for personal customers in February, over 100,000 payments have been sent through Payit for a total of £5 million.