Liam Colclough, Business Marketing Manager – Gaming at Trustly, breaks down the ways in which Trustly is helping betting and gaming operators to meet the growing demand for Open Banking.
Last year, I shared an overview of Trustly’s point of view on Open Banking in the UK at SBC News. Today, customers of all the major UK banks have access to Open Banking services and there’s clear evidence of fast-growing popularity.
According to data from the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), over 2.5 million bank customers in the UK have connected their accounts to third-party vendors like Trustly. That number is up from one million in January 2020.
Open Banking Payments, also referred to as Online Banking Payments, offer people the fast and convenient option to pay directly from their bank account without a debit or credit card.
In the UK, all banks must allow licensed third-party fintechs like Trustly to securely access bank account information via application programming interfaces (APIs) and modified customer interfaces (MCIs).
OBIE requires banks to use a standardised API in the UK, while in the rest of Europe, there are multiple standards and quality differs between banks. This provides the British consumer with a consistently good user experience across all the large banks.
Continuing to build on our strong foundation in the UK
Present in the UK since 2016, Trustly is now more accessible to British consumers than ever before. Since the British government founded the entity with the mission of modernising the APIs, we have worked with OBIE as part of our regulatory dialogues.
There is one crucial point that operators must understand about Open Banking. The APIs only support payment initiation, so to really succeed with Open Banking, operators need a full-service partner like Trustly.
Open Banking APIs and API aggregators don’t offer the same capabilities as Trustly. We deliver a complete solution that consists of instant deposits, ultra-fast payouts and reconciliation.
With our payout solution, players can receive lightning-fast withdrawals in their bank account. It’s important to note that very few Open Banking vendors have the capability to offer payouts.
Driving consumer awareness with West Ham United
In February 2021, we happily announced that Trustly is now the Official Open Banking Partner of the Premier League’s West Ham United Football Club.
The Trustly logo is now displayed on the LED advertising system that surrounds the pitch at London Stadium. Now that it’s being seen by millions of sports fans around the world, consumer recognition of the Trustly logo in the cashier continues to grow.
Providing the seamless UX British players demand
With the implementation of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) at the start of 2021, players who deposit with a card now face more friction, which could have a negative effect on conversion.
To make a deposit using a card, players now need to enter the card details and then perform a two-factor authentication (2FA) procedure, such as entering a code sent to their mobile via text, though the process varies from bank to bank. That added step comes after they’ve already gone through KYC and registration.
In contrast, Trustly combines the KYC with the deposit process by constantly verifying the player’s identity using data collected via their bank’s API, or third-party data when necessary.
With Trustly, players are not limited to depositing from an account with a connected debit/cash card. Trustly gives the player access to funds in any account. Since the player accesses their accounts using a bank-verified login, Trustly transactions reduce risk for the operator.
Constant vigilance supports fraud mitigation
Within Britain and the EU, biometrics are defined as one of the key safeguards for payment authorisation. Allowing the consumer to use the bank’s biometric authentication not only increases consumer trust, but fingerprint and face IDs also provide the seamless experience that players want.
Thanks to 2FA, Trustly’s payments are always fully traceable. We have implemented comprehensive merchant due diligence, transaction monitoring and reporting processes. This all helps to reduce money laundering and terrorism financing in society at large.
We continuously monitor and respond to changes in local regulations as part of our commitment to supporting operators’ payment optimization and compliance processes. This not only reduces the operator’s risk, it helps to strengthen consumer confidence.
Trustly is continually optimizing experiences for players in the UK
We follow the updates of the UK API integrations and are continuously refining our integrations accordingly. We see the fruits of our labour in our ever-growing conversion rates in the UK.
To ensure robust security and KYC compliance, we have enabled a “recurring user flow” on all UK integrations. The first time a player uses Trustly, they must go through a few mandatory steps to opt-in to our services. Each subsequent transaction is much easier.
Additionally, we have further optimised the user journey by introducing a new checkout/cashier for many of our UK merchants. This all adds up to a consistently superior payment journey.
As Open Banking continues to gain traction, more and more players in the UK will look for this option in the cashier. Trustly allows operators to meet that demand with the most robust Open Banking solution on the British gaming market.
