Livia Kathi – how to accelerate adoption of Pay by Bank
Meet Livia Kathi, a Product Solutions Director at Tink who is spearheading our Pay by Bank drive in the challenging realm of ecommerce. We spoke to Livia about the crucial factors of user experience, trust-building, and incentives as the driving force behind Pay by Bank's adoption, highlighting the collaborative efforts with Payment Service Providers and merchants to shape the future of online payments.
Livia Kathi, Tink’s Product Solutions Director, is helping to drive Pay by Bank’s adoption in ecommerce, transforming the way we pay online – for the good of consumers and businesses alike.
Livia identifies user experience, trust and understanding, and incentives as three key pillars for adoption.
She also highlights the collaborative efforts with PSPs and merchants as vital for the growth of open banking payments – Tink actively supports partners in optimising consumer experience, providing resources, and shaping incentive models for successful adoption.
Admittedly, we talk about Pay by Bank quite a lot at Tink, and one of the people who knows more than most about this payment solution – and especially its impact for ecommerce – is Livia Kathi, our Product Solutions Director.
Livia has been with Tink for almost 18 months, with an “end-to-end overview” of the ecommerce domain, from understanding specific segments and their pain points to developing new features and optimising the Pay by Bank user experience.
“We want Tink, and account-to-account payments more generally, to become more prominent in ecommerce – for one it gives consumers more choice at the checkout,” says Livia, who was one of the speakers at a special Tink ecommerce event in London recently.
“The interest from merchants and retailers is definitely there, we’ve talked to so many and there is a healthy pipeline of companies that are adopting open banking payments. Consumer adoption is a big focus now, as the next logical question we often hear is ‘will people use this?’ And it’s great to be able to show that millions are already using Pay by Bank – for bill payments and account top ups – and the user experience is seamlessly transferable from one use case to another.”
The three pillars of adoption
Pay by Bank has many advantages – it’s fast, secure, cost-effective and carries a low-fraud risk – and yet adoption on both sides of the checkout is still in its infancy. Gaining traction in the highly competitive ecommerce landscape isn’t without its challenges – consumers and retailers must find it user-friendly, trustworthy, and understand the benefits.
“Ecommerce is arguably the hardest segment in payments to serve because it’s where both merchants and consumers are the most demanding in terms of the experience they want to have,” says Livia.
“To me, there are three key pillars to accelerating the adoption of Pay by Bank – user experience, trust and understanding, and incentives – and this is what we’re most excited about in the coming months.”
User experience – UX is non-negotiable. If Pay by Bank doesn’t meet the high standards set by other payment methods, it won’t be a contender.
Trust and understanding – it needs to feel familiar and secure for consumers, and we can help gain that confidence by working with trusted entities like banks to ensure clear communication and brand recognition throughout the authentication flows.
Incentives – Tink recognises the potential power of rewards in popularising payment methods, whether they be intrinsic (such as a faster experience) or extrinsic (like a discount or extra loyalty points).
Livia and her team are working hard on all three of the above areas, and when it comes to optimising the UX, they consider every detail, right from the first encounter with the payment method to the final checkout.
For example, what’s in a name? In the case of Pay by Bank, quite a bit. We’re testing various names on buttons to optimise conversion rates based on geography and use cases – “we do a lot of work on making sure that the payment method is optimal for the country and context it’s being used in.”
There are other features we’re working on in the payment flow, like action-based prompts to help a user complete their journey, or ways of shortening the flow for returning users. “They may sound small, but these tweaks are essential to lift Pay by Bank above the parapet,” adds Livia.
Industry collaboration is vital
Livia also stressed the importance of working together with our customers (Payment Service Providers (PSPs) and merchants) to ensure the growth of open banking payments.
“Collaboration is essential for us, as we don't have a direct line of communication with consumers,” says Livia. “We rely on both the PSP and the merchant to optimise the consumer experience for better adoption and conversion rates. We're here to assist with the three pillars – providing resources like UX guides and FAQs, showing our partners how to create trust and educate their users, and helping to find the right incentive model for their use case. For major implementations, we review and provide recommendations on their entire flow. It's a joint effort, one that can't be achieved independently.”
It’s clear Livia is excited about the potential growth of Pay by Bank in 2024, fuelled by innovation, collaboration, and an unwavering commitment to transform the way we pay online – for the good of consumers and businesses alike.
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