How Europe’s banks are reclaiming digital payments – and reshaping the plumbing of finance
For much of the last decade, open banking has been framed as a disruptive force. Evangelists spoke of disintermediation, seamless account-to-account (A2A) payments, and a financial system rebuilt by code. The reality has been slower, quieter – and, perhaps, more durable.
“I think we’re over the hump,” says Ian Morrin, general manager for payments and platforms in Europe at Tink, a European open banking platform provider. “It’s not the tidal wave some expected. But it’s in the plumbing now – and it’s solving problems we used to ignore.”
Open banking is not replacing cards. It is not reshaping the checkout experience. But it is, quietly, becoming the preferred tool for solving a specific set of pain points: verifying affordability, improving reconciliation, and automating one-off payments that were once manual, error-prone, or simply inefficient. Adoption is rising, not because of innovation theatre, but because it works.
From rhetoric to reality
Open banking adoption is not being driven by top-line consumer demand, but by bottom-line utility. At Tink, which was acquired by Visa in 2022 and now processes more than €100 million per day in payments, Morrin says the shift in tone is clear: firms are no longer asking what open banking might do. They are identifying specific frictions and working backward.
“People are now going, ‘this is a point of friction – what’s in my toolbox?’” he says. “And open banking is in the toolbox.”
Speaking to Payment Expert on the sidelines of Money20/20 where ‘open banking’ was deemed a ‘bingo’ word, Morrin cites use cases that would not make headlines but deliver material value. Pension top-ups and ISA transfers in the UK, fraud mitigation in Germany, and income verification for rental deposits are all examples where A2A payments and data access have streamlined high-friction flows. In many of these cases, open banking is not replacing existing infrastructure, but augmenting it with better certainty, reduced latency, or fewer manual steps.
This approach marks a departure from the early years, when open banking was pitched as a consumer-facing alternative to cards and direct debits. “We were asking people to adopt something they didn’t ask for,” says Morrin. “Now, it’s about solving problems they already have.”
The banks return – strategic repositioning, not resistance
Far from being displaced, Europe’s major banks are now central actors in the evolution of open banking payments. At BNP Paribas and Santander, the narrative is no longer about defending legacy systems, but about broadening the options available to merchants and corporates seeking greater certainty in how they get paid.
“We do see this as a real collection strategy,” says Lyrka Bibezic, global head of product management at BNP Paribas. The bank has piloted open banking use cases across France and Italy and is now preparing for wider European rollout. For Bibezic, the appeal lies not in competing with cards or SEPA Direct Debit, but in complementing them with features better suited to specific business needs.
“Merchants and PSPs want to be paid, if possible, instantly – and with certainty,” she says. “With open banking and the PISP model, they are sure that they are getting paid. There’s no chargeback or refund risk, which is a significant advantage.”
One of the key pain points, she notes, is reconciliation. Large corporates often struggle to match inbound credit transfers with outstanding invoices. The process can be manual and slow, taking up to two days in some cases. “We’re being asked to help make that easier,” Bibezic says. “It’s not just about being paid – it’s about knowing who paid, and why.”
At Santander, the approach has been similarly pragmatic. “We’ve had the infrastructure for years,” says Gerry Davies, the bank’s payments commercial director. “Three hundred and fifty third parties are connected. We’re pulling 200 million APIs a month. But what we haven’t done is really push the commercial agenda.”
Now, he says, that is changing – with an emphasis on removing friction from everyday banking tasks. “We always put the customer at the centre,” Davies says. “That might sound like a cliché, but it really is how we think. Whether it’s paying off a credit card or topping up a savings account, the aim is to make that journey easier.”
Both banks have opted to go deep with strategic partners rather than spread resources thinly across multiple providers. BNP Paribas, for instance, has collaborated closely with Token.io on both ecommerce and point-of-sale implementations in France. Santander, meanwhile, is using the same partnership to streamline customer payments internally, from account funding to credit repayments.
“This isn’t about replacing existing rails,” says Bibezic. “It’s about giving our clients a better experience, without forcing them to change their habits.”
A fragmented path forward
If the UK has led the way in execution, continental Europe presents a more complex picture. Fragmentation across regulatory, commercial and technical layers has slowed adoption — but it has also led to the emergence of multiple parallel schemes, each shaped by local needs.
“There must be fair competition,” says Bibezic. “It’s like card schemes — no one questions why Visa, Mastercard and Amex coexist. The same should be true for account-to-account solutions.” She points to initiatives such as Wero, BLIK and Europe’s Giro API scheme, which Token recently joined, as signs of growing maturity in the market. “We shouldn’t see them as a threat,” she says. “The fact that there are so many simply shows the need.”
Token’s chief product officer, Charles Damen, agrees. “We’re entering a world of multi-schemes,” he says. “That’s good for merchants, good for consumers and ultimately good for innovation.”
Damen notes that Giro API, which has been adopted by 30 per cent of German banks, will enable more sophisticated use cases including buy-now-pay-later and single-click payments. “This will help establish a business model around premium APIs,” he says, “which the market has been missing.”
For merchants, the opportunity lies in reach and consistency. “Today, people use cards because they’re easy, familiar and work everywhere,” says Bibezic. “If we want account-to-account to succeed, it has to match that experience.”
Regulation meets reality
Regulatory support is now beginning to align with commercial momentum. The implementation of the instant payments regulation (SCT Inst.), set to deliver universal coverage for euro-denominated real-time payments by October, is viewed as a significant step. Its removal of surcharges on SEPA Instant has helped remove one of the main barriers to usage.
Additional tailwinds are expected from PSD3 and the EU’s forthcoming Payment Services Regulation (PSR), which aim to improve API reliability and streamline the user journey. Damen commented that moving forward the focus shouldn’t be on access but on conversion and making the experience good enough to compete.
Europe’s regulatory path differs markedly from the UK, where open banking has been elevated to a national policy objective. But the underlying goals are converging: reduce friction, increase certainty and create a level playing field for digital payments.
A change in tone
For all the technical progress, perhaps the most notable shift is cultural. The language around open banking is no longer revolutionary. It is practical, commercial, even boring — and that may be its greatest strength.
“We used to lead with the technology,” says Morrin. “Now, it’s about what problem we’re solving. That’s a good thing.”
The focus is increasingly on efficiency rather than disruption. BNP Paribas is working to reduce integration timelines, particularly for corporates with limited IT resources. Santander is using A2A to reduce operational load within its own ecosystem. At Token, client conversations revolve around checkout conversion and customer satisfaction scores, not protocol design or compliance burdens.
This is not the future open banking was originally sold as — but it may be the future the industry needs. Payments are not being reinvented. They are being improved, incrementally, at scale.
“The job’s not finished,” says Morrin. “But we’re getting better at knowing where to aim.”
