TrueLayer Launches Payouts, an Instant Solution for Refunds and Withdrawals

Payment processing has come a long way in recent years. The growing popularity of online shopping and the use of quick pay options in brick and mortar stores has forced companies to rethink old practices and spurred innovation.

In September of this year, payment provider TrueLayer has done just that, launching a revolutionary payment solution called ‘Payouts’ that’s taking the fintech world by storm. ‘Payouts’ is set to be a groundbreaking payment solution, offering instant refunds and withdrawals for customers at the click of a button.

TrueLayer is a fintech platform utilized to build financial apps that connect to bank data, verify accounts, and access transactions in real-time. We covered TrueLayer back in April after the London-based fintech startup raised $70 million to take on Visa and Mastercard and also expand internationally by building out its presence in Europe first before targeting a rollout in Australia.

Founded in the United Kingdom in 2016, TrueLayer uses its proprietary toolkit to develop consumer and server message block (SMB) applications in the areas of payments, online lending, personal financial management (PFM), robot-advisors, insurance, investment services, p2p marketplaces, and cryptocurrencies.

As TrueLayer continues to innovate and disrupt the status quo of the financial world, in September 2021, the company proved its worth with some serious venture capital. It received $130 million in funds with a $1 billion valuation as open banking becomes a more viable payment solution compared to traditional card networks.

Common Payment Issues

In a recent research study conducted by YouGov and TrueLayer in 2021, they found that the majority of online shoppers expect a refund within one week, and more than a third expect it in less than a week. Two-thirds of online shoppers also said that the time taken to receive a refund is an important factor affecting whether or not they shop on that website again — and this rises to 88% for high-value purchases.

Similarly, when iGaming players were asked about the impact payment processing had on their playing habits, 55% of players said that would switch to a different iGaming provider if they were offered instant payouts. Clearly, this is an important issue for many different industries.

The most frustrating part of making online payments for consumers is the annoyingly long wait times. With the current financial infrastructure, customers may end up waiting days (or even weeks) for their money to be disbursed or their payments to be processed.

The most common payment systems for outgoing payment are Bacs or card networks which can be agonizingly slow. These systems are a mess of detached processes that take ages to settle and sometimes, end up losing transactions completely.

How ‘Payouts’ Works

So in order to avoid these painfully slow or unreliable payment methods, TrueLayer has come up with a new solution that fixes all of these common issues. TrueLayer’s real magic has been in disrupting the world of financial services with a new technology sweeping the industry: open banking.

Open Banking

TrueLayer’s new Payouts solution utilizes Open Banking, a practice also known as “open bank data,” which gives third-party payment processors open access to consumers’ financial information such as banking and transaction details.

By relying on global networks instead of centralization, this process can speed up communication between banking institutions and merchants, sharing financial data via proprietary API.
While extremely fast and potentially revolutionary for the online banking industry, Open Banking has raised some serious concerns about customer privacy and risks to personal banking data.

Faster Payments Save Money

It’s hard to imagine that processing customer payments could result in a loss of revenue. But that’s exactly what can occur when human error is introduced into the mix. Fortunately, this new payment solution is entirely automated, removing the potential for lost or failed payouts that sometimes occur during manual payment processing.

In this day and age, customers have come to expect nearly instantaneous refunds and withdrawals to appear on their account transactions. They grow frustrated with businesses that still use outdated infrastructure that takes 3-7-days. Rapid payment processing actually builds trust with a company’s customer base, encouraging them to return and use their services again and again.

The head of payments at TrueLayer, Murtaza Bootwala said that “[Payouts] is designed with igaming in mind, where customers are growing increasingly frustrated by the poor experiences they have to endure as a result of outdated infrastructure. In 2021 it shouldn’t take days, sometimes over a week, to receive a payment.”

Payouts: Coming Soon to iGaming

At the moment, used car retailer Cazoo has the solution live, but TrueLayer’s head of payments, Murtaza Bootwala says that the solution was designed for the iGaming industry which accounts for millions of transactions per month.

He went on to say that, “Businesses today are laser-focused on customer experience, and the post-purchase experience involving customers requesting refunds or users withdrawing their funds, is critical to building loyalty,” an extremely important facet of the iGaming industry.

Once ‘Payouts’ makes its way into the iGaming arena, the effects will be even more apparent. With returning players receiving generous loyalty rewards and instantaneous refund and withdrawal transactions, TrueLayer’s new ‘Payouts’ program will be a decisive advantage to iGaming operators achieving excellent customer satisfaction and retention.