Introducing settlement accounts for simpler instant bank payments
Today we’re introducing a major upgrade to Tink’s payment stack: settlement accounts, a new feature that aggregates PIS settlement. This enables real-time payment confirmation, instant refunds and payouts, automated reconciliation, and more. We’ve partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Solidi to launch the feature first in the UK, with key European markets set to follow soon.
Tink upgrades its payment stack, enabling real-time payment confirmation, instant refunds and payouts, automated reconciliation, and more.
The upgrade addresses slow settlement times and reduces the risk of fraud.
It unlocks payments use-cases in ecommerce, travel, trading platforms, remittance services, iGaming and more
Payment Initiation already lets you provide a seamless, instant payment experience for end-users that can be embedded anywhere in your app or website. And now the funds are settled in real time to a Tink-managed merchant account with an immediate confirmation of payment. This launch sees Tink extending into a full-stack payment platform – powered by open banking. Here’s what it means for our customers:
Real-time payment confirmation: Receive automatic status updates, giving you an instant confirmation of settlement
Real-time refunds and end-user payouts: Automate payouts and full or partial refunds with API calls, in real time, faster than a credit or debit card refund
Simplified operations and shorter time-to-market: With aggregated settlement to a dedicated merchant account, batched or on-demand, there’s no need to build and manage separate processes across the payment lifecycle
Reconciliation and reporting: Automate reconciliation using webhooks and access integrated account statements and reports in the Tink Console
… while enjoying all the key benefits of Tink’s Payment Initiation: lower operational costs, increased security, and a frictionless checkout flow
Why this matters
Online payments work, but we think they can work better. Settlement times are slow (up to 4 days in some cases), fraud rates are an ongoing concern, and friction at the checkout is a given – not to mention the fees and operational costs associated with most payment methods.
Tink’s new and improved payments stack addresses these pain points directly. Merchants can now accept low-cost bank payments with integrated settlement and reporting tools – meaning you can send and receive money online faster than ever before while radically simplifying your payment operations. And since merchants don’t need to build and operate their own settlement and reconciliation tools or refund and payout logic – Tink provides this service in full with ready-made webhooks – it can accelerate time-to-market.
Who should this matter to? We think the combination of fast, cost-effective, and essentially fraud-free payments, plus instant settlement, could be a game-changer for merchants in several industries. Especially those industries in which speed and convenience matter most:
Ecommerce: A fast checkout is key to reducing cart abandonment. Having to enter card details, or being redirected to an external site, adds unnecessary friction when paying could be as simple as using biometrics like Face ID.
Travel and airlines: Tink’s frictionless payment experience can delight users when it comes to higher-ticket items, and instant refunds can help generate customer loyalty. Plus, operational costs are lower and fraud is virtually non-existent.
Trading and investment platforms: Speed is key to the overall user experience when it comes to trading, crypto, and wealth management. Instant payments lets customers access their funds even faster – add Tink’s Account Check to this and you’ve got yourself a frictionless, lightning-fast onboarding experience.
Remittance services: With an instant pay-in and payout, you can transfer funds between bank accounts immediately while keeping costs and fraud risk low.
iGaming / eGaming: As in financial services, the speed at which users can access their funds is critical in iGaming. With Tink, you can offer instant deposits and withdrawals since transactions are settled in real time.
For Solidi, one of the first crypto exchanges to be approved by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), speed is everything. Solidi lets users start investing in cryptocurrency in less than 2 minutes and is the only instant purchase exchange fully registered with the FCA. By partnering with Tink, Solidi gets an instant confirmation of payment and can let users trade as quickly as possible – while keeping transaction fees low and operational overhead at a minimum.
How it works
Here’s how the process works for Tink customers:
Payments settle in your Tink-managed merchant account and are automatically reconciled with users.
Users are then associated with verified account data, enabling you to issue instant refunds or payouts to the same end-user account.
You can also withdraw from your merchant account into your business’s own bank account, either programmatically via API or from the Tink Console.
Set up dedicated settlement accounts for each business unit, use case, or sub-merchant
For your end-users, the flow is simple:
The user selects ‘pay by bank’ as their preferred payment method.
The user is automatically redirected to their banking app to authenticate and confirm the payment.
Once the payment is made, you both receive a confirmation in real time.
The user is automatically redirected back to your app and, if they’ve topped up their account for example, the funds appear right away.
Users with an available balance can also withdraw funds instantly from their account, without having to switch to their banking app.
No client accounts or funds are held directly by Tink.
Want to know more about what you can build with Tink? Check out our products.
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