__London, UK, 06 July 2021:__ [Nook](https://nook.io/), the trade collaboration platform, has today announced that it is partnering with Open Banking infrastructure provider [Yapily](https://yapily.com), to create the first trade collaboration platform that eliminates invoice fraud and offers secure bulk payments, for accountants and SMEs.

Many accountants and SMEs still rely on poorly integrated tools to manage their accounts payable process, resulting in inefficiencies and exposure to fraud. As a consequence, UK businesses spend up to £50 processing each invoice and are losing at least [£784 million](https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/Fraud%20The%20Facts%202021-%20FINAL.pdf) in invoice fraud annually.

Nook is solving this problem by seamlessly integrating invoice processing, approvals, secure payments, and account reconciliation. Through partnering with Yapily, Nook will further enhance its fraud protection and payments features.

Harnessing Yapily’s infrastructure, Nook’s fraud protection feature integrates Know Your Business (KYB) checks into the payables process to protect SMEs and accountants against invoice fraud. Leveraging Open Banking in this way, Nook customers can request verification from their suppliers by authenticating their bank account. Thereby minimising business risk by giving them assurances they are paying a genuine invoice and a verified supplier.

Nook also utilises Yapily’s distinctive bulk payments offering, to enable customers to effortlessly make single and bulk payments, creating a single invoice-to-payment workflow, saving hours of financial admin when making payment runs.

__Joe Lines, CEO of Nook said__, “We are thrilled to be working with Yapily who are the only Open Banking infrastructure provider who can offer what our customers demand. 

“Partnering with Yapily helps us solve meaningful challenges in the accounts payable and receivables processes for our customers, putting us at the forefront of this new wave of innovation in B2B payments. With Yapily’s first-class Open Banking infrastructure and its distinctive bulk payments offering, we can continue to make life easier for accountants and SMEs as they look to rebuild from a challenging year.”

__Stefano Vaccino, CEO of Yapily said,__ “It’s great to see more customers like Nook harnessing bulk payments to enable SMEs and accountants to remove inefficiencies and take advantage of the digital economy. The past year has been incredibly challenging, so it’s great to partner with companies like Nook who are providing SMEs and accountants with the digital solutions they need to recover and move forward with confidence. We look forward to seeing Nook’s platform grow from strength to strength.”

Yapily broke new ground as the first Open Banking infrastructure provider to integrate with seven financial institutions’ bulk payment APIs in the UK in June 2021. After launching in the UK, Yapily has since rolled out bulk payments for over 442 institutions across five countries -  including Germany and Italy - with plans for further expansion. 

Nook's vision is to simplify the way businesses trade, by creating a platform that ultimately replaces the need for businesses to exchange PDF documents. Its uniquely symmetrical platform helps its customers with both their accounts payables and receivables workflows - including processing, approving and paying bills, as well as getting paid faster and enforcing payment terms. It also eliminates tedious manual data entry with two-way syncing with accounting software - including Sage, Quickbooks and Xero. 

Nook has raised $1m pre-seed funding from leading VCs, and is currently in private beta, with plans to launch in the coming weeks. 

---

[__About Yapily__](https://yapily.com)
Yapily is an Open Banking infrastructure provider, allowing companies to seamlessly access financial data and initiate payments. Designed and built for Open Finance, Yapily enables better and fairer financial products for everyone.

The company has raised $18.4m in funding to date, and provides infrastructure for industry leaders including American Express, Intuit Quickbooks, Moneyfarm and BUX. Headquartered in London, UK, Yapily employs over 90 people and continues to scale rapidly. 

[__About Nook__](https://www.nook.io)
Founded in 2021, Nook is on a mission to simplify how businesses trade together. Its trade collaboration platform enables businesses to seamlessly exchange accounting data, enforce legal contracts and make payments. 

Nook is a London and Lisbon-based startup backed by top-tier VCs and Angel investors. The company has raised $1m in pre-seed funding to date. 

To join our waitlist and get access to the platform please visit www.nook.io.


Nook partners with Yapily to create the first trade collaboration platform for SMEs and accountants

Nook, the trade collaboration platform, has today announced that it is partnering with Open Banking infrastructure provider Yapily, to create the first trade collaboration platform.

Developing Bulk Payments for Open Banking has been really tricky. What might seem on the surface to be just a simple implementation of the required endpoints, has actually been a huge team effort, and massive learning curve for us as a leading Open Banking infrastructure provider. 

## Why is Open Banking Bulk Payments complicated?

In the UK, Bulk Payments are only available to business account holders, making it difficult to get hold of real accounts to test with. In addition, we know we're treading new ground here, with many financial institutions telling us we are the first Open Banking infrastructure provider to integrate with their Bulk Payment APIs. This means we’re in uncharted territory for implementing the functionality, so we’ve had to go back and forth with institutions highlighting bugs, inconsistencies in behaviour, and in many cases, pointing out where their documentation isn’t reflective of what’s in production. 

One of the key inconsistencies we noted was regarding trusted beneficiaries. A collection of banks require all payees to be trusted beneficiaries, however, this information can only be found by calling a separate endpoint for those banks. Now, for all of the banks that require it, we have successfully implemented this endpoint.

We’ve also completed additional rounds of testing of our Bulk Payments endpoints, live in production with real accounts. This was due to the variation in mandatory fields that banks had not clearly specified, meaning many requests would be rejected without any indication of what information was missing/wrong. Thanks to one of our clients, Comma who are enabling small business owners to pay all their bills with one click, we were able to work together to test Bulk Payments effectively. As a result, the extensive live testing has enabled us to add additional validation to requests to catch these edge cases and provide our customers with the information needed to make bulk payments a success.

## Bulk Payments in Europe

After going live with Bulk Payments in the UK, we received customer requests for the functionality further afield in places like Germany and Italy. European Bulk Payments is generally easier to implement due to the fact that bulk payments are available on personal accounts, making live testing a lot easier than in the UK. In Europe there are tighter standards that dictate only one file type can be accepted when initiating a bulk payment, which makes the variation from bank to bank a lot smaller in comparison to the UK.

We're pleased to make significant progress and can now offer Bulk Payments for over 442 institutions across 5 countries, including all the Sparkassen regional branches and Commerzbank in Germany; and Raiffeisenbank in Italy. As our coverage expands we hope there will be many more companies that are able to leverage this functionality. 

## In practice (for real customers) what difference will it make?

Our work to add the additional validation to Bulk Payments requests in the Yapily service, protects customers from the ambiguous API documentation provided by financial institutions. We’ve also been really lucky to work with pioneering clients like Comma - who have been able to help us iron out the wrinkles in the functionality, by working with us to extensively test with live accounts. This enabled our team to compare successful and unsuccessful requests, identifying any further inconsistencies in what each bank accepted.

By doing all this leg work up front, it means we can offer a more robust product to our customers wishing to make use of Bulk Payments.

## What are we working on next? 

We’re continuing to work with brilliant partners like Comma defining the value of Bulk Payments for the market. We will continue to broaden our coverage of Bulk Payments in the UK and Germany, helping more customers who build accounting software, payroll and invoice management solutions to take advantage of Open Banking.

Bulk Payments Update

Bulk Payments has been eagerly anticipated by the Open Banking community and by many of our customers. We're glad to be developing and delivering Open Banking Bulk Payments functionality in the UK and in Europe.

__Berlin, 15th June 2021__ – In cooperation with Yapily, Vivid, the Berlin-based financial platform for investing, banking and saving, now offers its customers a free top-up feature via [Open Banking](https://yapily.com). Vivid will make it easier and more convenient for customers to transfer money from almost any bank account to their Vivid pocket. Customers will not need to enter their details manually every time they wish to transfer money from now on as these will be saved. Vivid users will save time when transferring money in future and can do it from the Vivid app instead of using multiple banking apps they might have.

__Alexander Emeshev, co-founder and CEO of Vivid Money, commented on the partnership with Yapily and the new feature:__ “We’ve noticed over the last months that our customers wanted to have this feature to have a better experience using Vivid. So we wanted to satisfy this demand and are happy to roll out the top-up feature across all our markets – Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Thanks to our partnership with Yapily, we are now able to offer this feature. This is only the first step of a broader roll-out of various ways, topping-up Vivid users’ pockets. We aim to make banking easy for our customers.”

Leveraging [Open Banking](https://yapily.com) technology, Vivid has chosen to partner with infrastructure provider, Yapily, for its smooth and secure connectivity to our users' bank accounts across Europe. Thanks to their technology, Vivid can send payment instructions to the bank the customers choose to initiate the payment. Customers will then confirm it in their banking app. The benefits are that it is an easy way to top up their Vivid pockets using an awesome UX and all accounts will be saved for future top-ups.

__Stefano Vaccino, Founder and CEO of Yapily, comments on the partnership with Vivid:__ “We are very excited about our partnership with Vivid. Open Banking has disrupted payments and we are seeing many innovative companies, like Vivid, embrace this technology to improve the experience and convenience for their users. We look forward to building and scaling a successful partnership together as we continue to focus on powering Vivid in further European markets.” 

---

__About Vivid__

Vivid Money is the first financial platform that combines all daily needs around money in one app. Whether investing, banking or saving, Vivid offers a simple, flexible and transparent solution to help customers grow their wealth. The company aims to provide customers across Europe with an unparalleled investment and banking experience, offering a wide range of financial services without unnecessary fees. Just eight months after its launch in June 2020, over 100,000 customers are already using Vivid Money products in Germany, France and Spain. Vivid Money was founded in Berlin in 2019 by Artem Yamanov and Alexander Emeshev and is made up of an international, highly qualified team of more than 200 employees. The app, the customer service and the processes for the maintenance and further development of the app have been tested and awarded by TÜV-Süd. After only one year, Vivid Money has already raised over 100 million euros from renowned investors, including Ribbit Capital and Greenoaks Capital, and is valued at 360 million euros.

__About Yapily__ 

Yapily is an Open Banking infrastructure provider, allowing companies to seamlessly access financial data and initiate payments. Designed and built for Open Finance, Yapily enables better and fairer financial products for everyone.

The company has raised $18.4m in funding to date, and provides infrastructure for industry leaders including American Express, Intuit Quickbooks, Vivid, Moneyfarm and BUX. Headquartered in London, UK, Yapily employs over 90 people and continues to scale rapidly. 


Vivid announces new partnership with Yapily to offer top-up feature

In cooperation with Yapily, Vivid, the Berlin-based financial platform for investing, banking and saving, now offers its customers a free top-up feature via Open Banking, to make it easier and more convenient for customers to top-up their Vivid pocket.

Open Banking usage has increased significantly since the start of the pandemic. In the UK alone, the OBIE reports that over 3 million consumers now use Open Banking-enabled products and services to improve their financial wellbeing, and more and more countries are harnessing the power of Open Banking to enable better and fairer financial services. 

But while the market has a rough idea of who is winning the metaphorical league and who is missing the net, no-one really knows what the actual picture looks like across Europe. Or what this means for the future of Open Banking adoption. Yapily’s European Open Banking league table provides this comprehensive overview of the market.

![Heat map for Euro 2020 Open Banking](//images.ctfassets.net/3ndxs7efitel/3au684HMUdWGR7d0pZv4Tm/628bef6d4ef639ff4dbf0920dbba666f/monocromatic4.png)

The league table - based on data compiled in 2021 by Yapily through its EU-wide Open Banking API infrastructure and monitoring tools - reveals that while parts of the EU are making positive strides to drive Open Banking adoption and are on track to evolve into Open Finance, others are far behind and missing their scoring opportunity.

Each country has been ranked based on levels of supervision and enforcement by the member state, the presence of Open Banking from a technical standard, regulator interpretation, API standards and bank readiness, and overall product score. Yapily has also shared regulatory insight on where and how each country can positively improve their overall score and ranking.

__Andria Evripidou, Policy Lead at Yapily comments on the data,__ “The league table demonstrates the positive impact Open Banking adoption has across markets and highlights that the ecosystem as a whole, is on the right path to offering fairer financial services for everyone. 

“While some countries have a bigger presence, over the next few years, we will start to see standardised technical requirements that map customer journeys across all countries and better educate industries on Open Banking, as well as the direction of the ecosystem.

“Ultimately, all countries are working towards a common goal - to evolve with Open Finance - and at Yapily, we’re excited to watch the rest of Europe dive forward with this innovation.”

| Country     | Detail     | Score     | Improvements     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| UK       | Yapily’s data reveals that the UK comes out on top as the leading adopter of Open Banking, with it’s clear functionality and more widespread mandating of interesting features, such as Bulk Payments and VRP (variable recurring payments).       | 10       | Open Banking has been implemented successfully in the UK. The focus should now be on fixing some of the remaining issues in the technical implementation. Additionally, the industry would benefit from a roadmap to further the implementation of Open Finance.       |
| Ireland       | Ireland's Open Banking success is very similar to the UK's, in the sense of regulation and adoption. As a result of Brexit, many UK businesses have set up satellites or a main base in Ireland. However, given the mix of UK and Berlin group standard that a few banks use, there is some complexity when integrating with a wide variety of banks in Ireland.       | 9       | Ireland has closely followed the UK with regards to the implementation of Open Banking. However, in Ireland an entity that is similar to the OBIE has not yet been formed and would potentially add great value to the wider ecosystem. An OBIE-like entity could support Irish companies in implementing technical specifications and drive adoption rates forward by increasing the trust in the ecosystem.       |
| Germany       | Germany also ranks high as it has strong regulatory supervision and uses Berlin Group’s API - the most prescriptive after UK Open Banking. However, it has low guidance provided around the implementation of Open Banking and could do with support on issuing regulatory guidelines around user journeys and customer authentication.       | 8       | Germany's slow adoption rate of Open Banking is generally due to two factors. The first being poor guidance on the appropriate implementation of Open Banking, leading to various interpretations. Secondly, cultural attitudes towards using digital payment methods. On the public policy side, the regulatory bodies can do better at increasing the awareness of the benefits attached to Open Banking.       |
| Netherlands       | Although the Netherlands use the Berlin Group standard for Open Banking, regulatory supervision is comprehensive. There is also wide scale adoption of PIS amongst the population.       | 8       | In the Netherlands, the use of PIS is widely adopted through iDeal - a PIS provider. However, AIS has not been as widely adopted and consumers remain sceptical about its benefits. Our recommendation would be for the regulator to try and open up the market to more TPPs, increasing competition by lowering legislative barriers to entry and do more work on increasing awareness on the security features of Open Banking.       |
| Austria       | Austria is very similar to the German market and Open Banking standard, automatically scoring them quite high. However, there is no industry body like the OBIE in Austria but they do have powerful associations in the Open Banking space driving standardisation.       | 7.5       | The regulator could work more closely with the industry to deliver guidelines that match the ecosystem's requirements. This could be done through working relevant associations or through consultations that can be used to understand the gaps that need to be covered, in order for TPPs to be able to offer a wider range of Open Banking products/services.       |
| Estonia       | Estonia has been trying to bring in a lot of foreign investment since Brexit, hence they have invested in developing a fertile regulatory environment for foreign firms. Open Banking has been one of the selling points/central areas of attention for regulators there. However, despite sharing a number of banks with many of the Baltic/Nordic regions, implementations vary, making connectivity slightly more tricky.       | 7.5       | Regulators should mandate a set of common technical standards that are more similar to the ones used around the EU. Even though Open Banking authorisation is relatively streamlined in Estonia, authorities should focus on ensuring that firms meet the legal requirements once authorised and enforce against poor quality API performance.       |
| Lithuania       | Similarly to Estonia, Lithuania has developed a strong Fintech movement with many UK firms setting up European bases in Vilnius. You can expect Fintechs to continue the push for innovation, supported by regulators and banks.       | 7.5       | Lithuania, in a similar way to Estonia, has made authorisation guidelines simple and easy to understand, which have supported market entrants. However, more attention needs to be paid in standardising consumer journeys and developing a set of regulatory guidelines specific to UX would be a considerable improvement for the market.       |
| Poland       | Open Banking is definitely a high priority in Poland. There is a strong sense of cooperation between industry and regulators. There is some guidance formed around the Polish API standard, however it is extremely bespoke making implementation difficult.       | 7       | Regulatory authorities could focus on delivering API specifications that are closer to the ones used by most EU countries. They could also focus on stricter enforcement of PSD2 standards as the current implementation is patchy.       |
| France       | The STET framework is used throughout France for Open Banking, it can have different interpretations by banks, which has led to discrepancies in implementation. On the whole, feature coverage is good but there are limitations.       | 6       | France's legislative framework is quite complicated and has a strong focus on AML. To support the adoption of Open Banking, regulators could provide more guidance to firms on how best to meet legislative requirements. Currently, firms in France have to meet quite strict regulatory requirements in order to be authorised, these are not always proportionate to the risk profile of a company.       |
| Spain       | Although Spain uses the Berlin group standard, Redsys API gateway makes it easy to integrate in Spain. But, there are many variations between banks, meaning it is harder to normalise across integrations.       | 6       | Even though regulatory bodies have welcomed PSD2 and Open Banking in Spain, the supervision and enforcement of the rules have been very weak. A stricter approach whereby the regulators collect real data around API availability and adherence to legal requirements, followed by enforcement against breaches of these rules, would ensure that OB journeys are streamlined therefore accelerating adoption.       |
| Italy       | Italy has very low supervision of Open Banking standards and a very slow regulatory response. PSD2 was adopted, however no changes were made or added to the original legislation around Open Banking. Italy uses the Berlin groups standard, but general payments implementation (outside of single domestic payments) is very poor.       | 5       | Italy needs a speedier and more agile regulatory approach for Open Banking to take off. The regulator could set-up a dedicated Open Banking support team to help firms navigate the regulatory environment or provide guidance to PSD2 implementation.       |
| Denmark       | Denmark has good regulatory supervision with some guidance provided around implementation. However, it has no industry body, to help centralise standardisation and drive technical standards. This is something they will most likely be implementing in the coming years.       | 5       | Given the existing direction of Denmark and it's welcoming approach to Open Banking, regulators should start focusing on how Open Banking will become interoperable with Open Finance. Regulators could provide a roadmap to start preparing TPPs on how to adjust their internal systems, in a way that would allow them to integrate with other financial providers beyond banks as features become available.       |
| Norway, Sweden & Finland       | These three countries have good regulatory supervision with some guidance provided around Open Banking implementation. However, there is no OBIE-like body, to help centralise standardisation and drive technical standards.       | 5       | An OBIE-like body would add a lot of value to the ecosystem as it would help clarify any remaining issues around the implementation of Open Banking and how the industry could address more use cases, which at the moment are limited in these countries.       |
| Latvia       | Although Open Banking is not a regulatory priority, Latvia does share banks with many baltic and nordic states.       | 5       | Regulators should develop a set of guidelines on what is expected from TPPs. This would reduce uncertainty and provide an incentive for more firms to either enter the market or adopt Open Banking.       |
| Portugal       | Regulators have worked with the industry to progress standardisation of technical standards, despite this, banks and firms are yet to widely adopt Open Banking.       | 4.5       | In Portugal the main barrier to Open Banking adoption is the incumbent banks approach to supporting TPPs. Regulators need to prescribe stricter SLAs for banks to meet. For example, TPPs should be able to resolve issues and outages with banks, within 3 working days. Regulators should also collect more data and supervise API availability more closely. Removing any artificial barriers raised in consumer journeys that make it easier to use a card instead of Open Banking when making a payment will also aid adoption in Portugal.       |
| Belgium       | Regulatory support for Open Banking in Belgium is very slow. Regulatory supervision and guidance around implementation is very minimal.       | 4       | Similar to other EU countries, a swifter approach to enforcing PSD2 standards would benefit the implementation of Open Banking. At the moment, Open Banking complaints or notifications are slow to be answered and incumbents have made Open Banking journeys more difficult. Regulators need to specify more detailed criteria for TPPs and banks to understand how user journeys should look and feel.       |
| Czech Republic      | Open Banking is a very low priority for regulators and there is no guidance around implementation.       | 3.5       | Due to the low interest in this area, the best way to move forward would be to set-up an OBIE-like entity to standardise technical requirements and consumer journeys. This would ensure that all industry participants are aware of the direction of the ecosystem. Any other approach would be too slow to deliver considerable benefits within a reasonable timeframe.       |
| Iceland       | Open Banking is a very low priority for regulators and there is no guidance around implementation.       | 3       | Iceland has a relatively small financial system. As such, industry coordination becomes easier. The regulatory bodies could move quicker in providing a set of minimum standards and expectations on how Open Banking should be implemented and then allow the industry to develop its own solutions by a specified deadline.       |
| Luxembourg       | Open Banking is a very low priority for regulators and there is no guidance around implementation.       | 3       | Due to the low interest in this area, the best way to move forward would be to set-up an OBIE-like entity to standardise technical requirements and consumer journeys. This would ensure that all industry participants are aware of the direction of the ecosystem. Any other approach would be too slow to deliver considerable benefits in a reasonable timeframe.       |
| Greece       | Open Banking is a very low priority for regulators and there is no guidance around implementation.       | 2.5       | Due to the low interest in this area, the best way to move forward would be to set-up an OBIE-like entity to standardise technical requirements and consumer journeys. This would ensure that all industry participants are aware of the direction of the ecosystem. Any other approach would be too slow to deliver considerable benefits in a reasonable timeframe.       |
| Romania       | Open Banking is a very low priority for regulators and there is no guidance around implementation.       | 2       | Due to the low interest in this area, the best way to move forward would be to set-up an OBIE-like entity to standardise technical requirements and consumer journeys. This would ensure that all industry participants are aware of the direction of the ecosystem. Any other approach would be too slow to deliver considerable benefits in a reasonable timeframe.       |
| Hungary       | Open Banking is a very low priority for regulators and there is no guidance around implementation.       | 2       | Due to the low interest in this area, the best way to move forward would be to set-up an OBIE-like entity to standardise technical requirements and consumer journeys. This would ensure that all industry participants are aware of the direction of the ecosystem. Any other approach would be too slow to deliver considerable benefits in a reasonable timeframe.       |


European Open Banking League Table

In line with the upcoming European Championships, we have put together a report to rank the countries in terms of Open Banking environment. We have assessed the readiness of the regulatory and product environment to apply a score to each country.

__London, UK, 8th June 2021:__ Yapily, the leading [Open Banking infrastructure](https://yapily.com) provider, has today announced the launch of its new [Open Banking Bulk Payments](https://www.yapily.com/blog/open-banking-bulk-payments/) service, with [Comma](https://usecomma.com/), the SME payments platform, already live and benefiting from the service in the UK. 

Working in close partnership with Comma, Yapily has simplified the complex process of Bulk Payments - under [Open Banking](https://yapily.com) - in the UK. The proposition provides customers such as Comma with the API connection they need to create a reliable, secure and scalable Bulk Payments feature for their [accountancy](https://yapily.com/solutions/accounting/), payroll and bookkeeper clients.

Until now, [Bulk Payments](https://www.yapily.com/blog/open-banking-bulk-payments/) in the UK have only been available to medium to large scale businesses that have corporate banking accounts. As such, many SMEs have been forced to rely on legacy, inefficient payment processes causing significant headaches and issues when it comes to paying staff, suppliers and customers on time, every time. 

Harnessing Yapily’s Bulk Payment offering, Comma’s accountant and bookkeeper customers can create and share payment runs with clients; who in turn can bulk pay bills, taxes and salaries on their phone or desktop, in a few clicks from their own bank account. This enables accountants and bookkeepers to offer new payment services to clients - something demanded of them for many years. Operational efficiency is an essential benefit as SMEs look to rebuild post-pandemic. 

__Tom Beckenham, CEO and Founder of Comma said,__ “Comma was developed out of a passion for helping small businesses. Paying anything manually is a tedious process and often affects the small business owner. Working closely and transparently with Yapily, we’re now able to provide our customers with a magical payments experience. It gives them the time back to focus on growing their businesses. We look forward to continuing our collaborative partnership with Yapily.”

Leveraging its direct and deep connections with many of the UK’s largest banks, Yapily is the first Open Banking infrastructure provider to test and release Bulk Payments functionality for 7 financial institutions’ in the UK. 

__Stefano Vaccino, CEO of Yapily said,__ “We’ve seen a real, increasing demand from our customers for bulk payments capabilities. We’re proud to say that after some hard work, we’ve built a reliable Bulk Payments feature for our customers in the UK. We’ve been lucky to work with pioneering clients like Comma who have supported us in stress-testing the functionality so we can deliver the most robust service possible. 

“What might seem on the surface to be a simple implementation of the required endpoints, has been a huge team effort, and a big learning curve for us as an Open Banking infrastructure provider. We’re already working on rolling this out into Europe and we’re excited to be working with Comma and other customers on developing even further.” 

Yapily’s Bulk Payment service will be rolled out to customers in Germany in the coming months, and will look to power new bulk payments propositions with more European customers in the future.

---

__About Yapily__ 
Yapily is an Open Banking infrastructure provider, allowing companies to seamlessly access financial data and initiate payments. Designed and built for Open Finance, Yapily enables better and fairer financial products for everyone.

The company has raised $18.4m in funding to date, and provides infrastructure for industry leaders including American Express, Intuit Quickbooks, Moneyfarm and BUX. Headquartered in London, UK, Yapily employs over 90 people and continues to scale rapidly. 

__About Comma__ 
Comma is an open banking bulk payment system - the first of its kind. It handles the boring but important stuff - bills, salaries, and taxes - for small and micro businesses who don't have corporate banking. We get to small businesses through bookkeepers and accountants by enabling payment services.

The company is Silicon Valley backed and headquartered in the UK. Although only a young company, It is already used by dozens of accounting and bookkeeping firms across the UK to pay. Close to £250,000 has already been transferred so far using the bulk payments API. 


Yapily launches Bulk Payments service with Comma in the UK

Yapily, the leading Open Banking infrastructure provider, has today announced the launch of its new Open Banking Bulk Payments service, with Comma, the SME payments platform, already live and benefiting from the service in the UK. 

In a successful modern business, the happiness of the people working in it is the most important business priority. There is a real understanding from the management team that we need to look after our people, to look after our customers, which in turn builds a great business. The Yapily leadership team is very passionate about diversity - we have 24 different nationalities amongst our 90+ Yapsters and 25% of our people are from black, asian, mixed and other ethnic backgrounds, we’re also tracking social mobility amongst our people. There is a lot of work to do but we’re passionate about improving life for all our Yapsters and making sure Yapily is a company that is a truly inclusive and a great place to work. 

## What are the main responsibilities of The People Team?

The People Team is responsible for the experience that people have when they work at Yapily. We want our team to have their careers and their lives positively impacted through working with us. It’s a very ambitious target! 

Traditionally HR has been responsible for the ‘processes’ that people go through at different stages of their employment. Being a people professional is more about focusing on the individuals we have hired and ensuring they thrive both professionally and personally, in the mutual best interests of both the company and the individual. Our work is varied, from ensuring we hire the best talent from all parts of our society, to employee benefits, creating strategies for developing our talent, developing wellbeing initiatives and everything else in between. 

It is not easy meeting every one of our diversity goals as fast as we would like to. We don’t have a huge team tackling these initiatives like many large corporations, but we do have the ability to make real change. Working in a start-up is great because of the variety of projects that we get to work on and in particular, working so closely with the people who are building our business; designing solutions and initiatives that work for them.

## What has been done so far and what is next?

Our main goal for the first 12 months has been to set up The People Team and to help the business scale efficiently, putting strategies and processes in place to support the development of our team and attract new talent. 

Since The People Team was introduced at Yapily, we’ve conducted a lot of surveys and have listened to feedback about how people are feeling, to get data on where we should improve. After assessing the initial feedback we got from the team, we decided to tackle these projects:

### Structured onboarding programmes
As the last year has proven, virtual onboarding needs to be planned and executed just as efficiently as in-person onboarding. So we’ve designed and implemented onboarding programmes that are specific to departments/functions in the business. This helps the new members of the team learn about Yapily, get to know the business/team and settle in smoothly.

### Talent development programme for our people managers
As we grow as a business, we want to empower our people managers and their teams to be the best they can be. We’ve introduced training and development to ensure that our people managers have the toolkit and support needed to lead and develop and inspire their teams effectively.

### Improved our pension scheme
Based on feedback we got from the team earlier this year, we’re implementing a salary exchange scheme and we have moved pension providers to ensure our team gets the best return on their pension. 

### Formal pay reviews and career development conversations
We’ve successfully initiated annual pay reviews and are now encouraging monthly career development conversations. This is to ensure that we’re considering what each team member values, wants to learn and achieve from their career. 

### Regular feedback loop
We’ve introduced a regular timeline of internal surveys and feedback sessions, so that the team has the opportunity to shape our future People initiatives. 

Next, the team will be working on diversity initiatives with a particular focus on inclusion and gender diversity. We’ll be looking at increasing our parental leave provisions and developing our Learning & Development agenda. 

### A quick note from the team:

Katie Kyle, People Lead at Yapily: "It’s humbling that so many people want to develop their careers with us and we take that responsibility seriously and are working hard to develop a great place for them to thrive."

Mary Kawa, People Coordinator at Yapily: "Although I’m new to the People team, it’s clear to see that Yapily is committed to engaging our Yapsters and supporting their development. This human approach is what drew me in and what really makes Yapily stand out."

People and Talent at Yapily

The People Team is responsible for the experience that people have when they work at Yapily. We want our team to have their careers and their lives positively impacted through working with us. It’s a very ambitious target!

In the year that HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative has come into effect, we're finally taking the first significant step towards paperless and digital first tax collection. MTD encourages individuals to keep validated digital tax records on their chosen accounting software, with the aim of encouraging business owners to eventually go paperless. It makes tax administration more effective, more efficient and easier for businesses to stay on top of their affairs.

## What are the problems associated with outdated accounting software and manual processes?

Usually, end users will have to log into various online banking applications and download individual statements for given time periods, then upload them into the accounting software. In some cases users have to convert files to match upload requirements, or there are additional manual inputs which can also be prone to human error. These manual processes lead to a regular and unavoidable time investment for tax submissions or reconciliation. 

## What can accounting software providers do to support SMEs?

Accounting software providers now have the power to reduce the amount of time that businesses and self-employed individuals spend processing information manually. Open Banking powered software can streamline processes for SMEs and the self-employed by providing real time feeds directly from the users bank accounts. In practice, this would unlock real-time visibility across all accounts in one accounting application; therefore reducing time spent on reconciliation and cash flow management. 

Giving users the option to link multiple bank accounts and share transaction data through Open Banking, will enable automated accounting processes - speeding up tax returns and enabling users to benefit from actionable insights based on up to date financial data. Intuit Quickbooks and IRIS Kashflow are two of the leading providers already utilising Open Banking in their platforms.

Click here to read more about using [Open Banking for account aggregation](https://www.yapily.com/blog/what-is-account-aggregation/).

### The timeline for rollout of MTD is as follows: 

Now - VAT-registered businesses with a taxable turnover above the VAT threshold of £85,000 need to keep digital records and submit digital VAT returns using compatible software.

From April 2022 - VAT-registered businesses with a taxable turnover below £85,000 will be required to follow Making Tax digital rules for their first return.

From April 2023 - Self-employed businesses and landlords with annual business or property income above £10,000 will need to follow the rules for MTD for Income Tax from their next accounting period.

Since the consultation on MTD for corporation tax, the government will provide businesses with an opportunity to take part in a pilot for Making Tax Digital for Corporation Tax and will not mandate its usage before 2026.

[You can find more information on the deadlines and official government requirements here](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-tax-digital/overview-of-making-tax-digital).

Eventually, MTD will apply to all businesses and self-employed individuals. This move towards digital services powered by Open Banking will eliminate human error, is more convenient and will save time for anyone submitting VAT or tax returns in future.


Making Tax Digital with Open Banking

In the year that HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative has come into effect, we're finally taking the first significant step towards paperless and digital first tax collection. Find out more how accounting software providers can utilise Open Banking.

Back in May 2020 we shared that we had [launched in Germany](https://www.yapily.com/blog/the-yapily-platform-is-live-in-germany/), with coverage across 80% of consumer retail bank accounts. This initial coverage included Deutsche Bank, Noris Bank, Commerzbank, N26, ING, Unicredit (for both retail and business customers) - as well as all Sparkassen and Landesbanken, which are regional banks across Germany totalling nearly 400 separate institutions. We were very happy with this coverage as a base for our customers in Germany, but the more we got to know the market, we knew that 80% wasn’t good enough for a fintech market that was buzzing with potential. So we decided to grow our coverage, ensuring further support for the future implementation of newly available [Open Banking](https://yapily.com) features.

## Our Coverage

Once we had a foothold in the region, we understood the fragmented banking landscape within Germany and we wanted to further expand our coverage to help serve our customers better. We quickly added Comdirect, Consorsbank, and also migrated N26 from their depreciated API to their newest API. We then wanted to focus on three banks giving excellent coverage across Germany, but posing an entirely new technical challenge: Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken, Postbank and Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB) - Embedded Flow banks.

### Developing further support for desired Open Banking features

You may have read our previous article on the launch of [Yapily in Austria](https://www.yapily.com/blog/were-live-in-austria/), where we discussed some of the technical differences of embedded flow as an authentication method. From a technical build perspective, we spent a lot of time redesigning our API integration for embedded flow banks, to make sure it was suitable for all the coverage we wanted in Germany, meanwhile ensuring that it would work for new banks we hadn’t yet come across. 

In our article last year we described how German bank integrations are always in the Next Gen PSD2 Berlin Group API standard, and the variety and breadth that the API standard provides. It means that each bank has a bespoke implementation, and similarly, each bank’s embedded flow implementation is different. We’ve worked really hard to normalise the embedded flow journey for Yapily customers, and we’re proud we can now offer Embedded and Redirect authorisation flow banks side by side in our Germany coverage, taking our total consumer account coverage to over 90%. Across all of our German coverage we support both AIS and PIS functionality which was a goal for our team based on the customer feedback we received post-launch.

## Growing Fintech Market 

Upon entering the German market last year, we learnt from both current and prospective clients about the type of features and coverage they needed to be successful. As a result of this feedback we rolled out business accounts as standard for many of our institutions, including Commerzbank, Sparkassen, Volks- & Raiffeisenbanken. In addition to that, we added periodic payment functionality, to ensure our clients had the full suite of payment types for all of their Germany coverage and most recently, we’re in the process of adding [bulk payments](https://www.yapily.com/blog/open-banking-bulk-payments/) functionality. Bulk payments will be specifically useful for payroll solutions and invoice management/accounting software.

### What to keep an eye on:

Bafin have recently approved PSD2 APIs, meaning it will become mandatory to use the approved APIs instead of legacy interfaces like FinTS. It is expected that Bafin will approve further APIs soon, which will accelerate the adoption of modern Open Banking infrastructure.


Germany market update

The latest German market update from Yapily. When we initially developed a foothold in the region, we understood the fragmented banking landscape within Germany and we wanted to further expand our coverage to help serve our customers better.

__London, 29 April 2021:__ New data, released by Yapily, the leading Open Banking infrastructure provider, finds all of the UK’s major retail banks have made significant improvements in [Open Banking API](https://yapily.com) response times over the last 12 months since Q1 2020. 

The data was compiled by Yapily through its [Open Banking infrastructure](https://yapily.com) and monitoring tools. It provides tangible proof that the UK’s high street banks are making positive strides to close the gap on the challenger banks and meet the demands of UK businesses and consumers by providing the Open Banking services they want and need to confidently recover and rebuild in the coming months. 

__UK banks % improvements in API response time from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021:__

- AIB: 63% faster
- Barclays: 50% faster 
- First Direct:  19% faster
- Halifax: 16% faster
- HSBC: 14% faster
- Lloyds: 21% faster
- M&S Bank: 52% faster
- Natwest: 39% faster
- RBS: 41% faster
- Santander: 22% faster

Since Q1 2020, Yapily has seen the number of Open Banking payments increase by 365%, on average, every quarter. This exponential growth in payments made through Open Banking APIs is tangible proof from the market that supports research predicting over two thirds (64%) of UK adults will be adopters by 2022, along with 71% of SMEs. 

Yapily’s data has also found the average API response time for UK retail banks has improved by 22% since Q1 2020 - speeding up from 693ms to 538ms in Q1 2021. This reflects the investment made by banks into enhancing their Open Banking APIs to meet growing demand from digital natives who expect nothing less than fast, secure and digital-first services from financial institutions. The positive strides made by the market as a whole demonstrate the UK’s retail banks are not content to be left behind as the challengers race ahead when it comes to customer experience. 

__Stefano Vaccino, CEO of Yapily comments on the data,__ “Our data, along with recent investment into the market and clear directives from regulators on the future of Open Banking and Open Finance, provides clear evidence there is significant confidence in the market. It’s undeniable that we are seeing, and will continue to see, exponential growth in Open Banking adoption. 

“Open Banking is the first step on the road to Open Finance, where open access has the potential to revolutionise how we live whether it’s paying for our shopping and utilities or managing our money or setting up a business. Over 3 million UK adults are now activity engaged with Open Banking solutions according to the OBIE to help get a better handle on their financial wellbeing. We’re excited to be at the forefront of this open financial revolution.”

For live updates on the performance of the bank’s APIs, [see here](https://apiscore.yapily.com/). 

---

__About Yapily__

Yapily is an Open Banking infrastructure provider, allowing companies to seamlessly access financial data and initiate payments. Designed and built for Open Finance, Yapily enables better and fairer financial products for everyone.

The company has raised $18.4m in funding to date, and provides infrastructure for industry leaders including American Express, Intuit Quickbooks, Moneyfarm and BUX. Headquartered in London, UK, Yapily employs over 90 people and continues to scale rapidly.


Yapily API data shows increased Open Banking adoption

New data, released by Yapily, the leading Open Banking infrastructure provider, finds all of the UK’s major retail banks have made significant improvements in Open Banking API response times over the last 12 months since Q1 2020. 

__London, UK, 27 April 2021:__ [Osu](https://www.payosu.com/index.html), a new invoicing and payment-app for the self-employed, has today announced its partnership with leading Open Banking infrastructure provider [Yapily](https://yapily.com). The partnership will see Osu provide self-employed professionals with a way to receive payments without fees or settlement delays.  

There are four and a half million self-employed professionals in the UK and until now, many of these businesses have had to rely on time-consuming payment processes riddled with frustrating issues to manage their day-to-day finances. At a time when the self-employed are already taking a hit due to the pandemic, eliminating the cost of getting paid and automating tasks such as sending invoices, accepting payments, and chasing customers is critical to managing their cashflow. 

Through harnessing Yapily’s [Open Banking infrastructure](https://yapily.com), Osu is enabling a seamless payments experience for its customers. By building it’s payment request flow on top of Yapily’s API infrastructure, rather than integrating with a card-based payment service provider, Osu removes traditional pain points affecting the self-employed when it comes to payments, such as high fees, settlement delays, and error-prone bank transfers. 

Osu, which launched in 2020, gives freelancers and the self-employed access to cutting edge payment tools. Through its easy-to use payments app, Osu lightens the load for self-employed professionals across the UK, taking care of their business and helping them achieve more for their efforts: more earnings, more time, and more opportunity to build. A virtual PA working behind the scenes for the self-employed who aren’t big enough to have wider teams. 

To date, the Osu app has helped over 1,000 self-employed professionals build and grow their operations, assisting them to successfully accept hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of payments. With a recent seeding round raising more than £2m, Osu now plans to increase its customer base to 10,000 active users by the end of 2021.

__Noam Nevo, CEO & Co-founder of Osu commented,__ “Our aim has always been to help the self-employed and empower them when it comes to managing payments - which in the current climate is more important than ever. Many of our customers are one-man bands or micro-businesses without dedicated finance or admin teams. Our app allows the self-employed to receive payments without fees or settlement delays so that they can carry on with their day-to-day with no worry of losing out on vital funds. Yapily’s infrastructure enables this to happen, so it was a no-brainer to partner with them.”

“We’re planning on introducing a host of new business management features this year, and with support from Yapily, we believe our offering will continue to make life easier for the self-employed  as they look to rebuild from a challenging year.”

__Stefano Vaccino, CEO of Yapily said,__ “This partnership is an exciting development for Open Banking and demonstrates the benefits our infrastructure can bring to the changing - and growing - landscape of the self-employed. 

“The past year has been exceptionally challenging for the self-employed, so providing them with the right tools to alleviate financial stresses is critical for supporting their recovery. Open Banking removes hidden payment fees and allows these professionals to focus their time and effort on doing what they love.

“Our partnership with Osu very much aligns with our mission of driving financial inclusion. We’re looking forward to how this partnership develops into other innovative solutions that will, no doubt, prove invaluable to business owners.”

---

__About Yapily (yapily.com)__

Yapily is an enterprise connectivity provider, allowing companies to share financial data and access payment infrastructure. Designed and built for Open Finance, Yapily enables fairer and better financial products for everyone. 

The company has raised $18.4m in funding to date, and provides infrastructure for industry leaders including American Express, Intuit Quickbooks, Moneyfarm and BUX. Headquartered in London, UK, Yapily employs over 80 people and continues to scale rapidly. 

__About Osu (osu.com)__

Osu is a subscription-based invoicing and payment app for the self-employed. With instant payments, zero transaction fees, invoicing, automated reminders, and more features coming soon, Osu is helping empower the self-employed to take better control of their payment management. Users receive a 30-day free trial of the Osu app with no commitment and no need to provide any card details. After 30 days, they have a choice of 3 monthly plans of £4.99 (Lite), £9.99 (Standard), or £19.99 (Pro).      

Osu and Yapily enable the self-employed to focus on growth by eliminating payments fees, in new partnership.

Osu, a new invoicing and payment-app for the self-employed, has announced its partnership with leading Open Banking infrastructure provider Yapily. Providing self-employed professionals with a way to receive payments without fees or settlement delays. 

Learn more about open banking, explore use cases, and stay up-to-date on industry and company news...all in one place

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