What are Variable Recurring Payments?

Put simply, Variable Recurring Payments (or “VRP”) enable payment providers to give businesses a new option for managing regular customer payments like subscriptions, utility bills, and donations. It also creates a smarter payments experience for consumers, enabling them to easily set up recurring payments through their bank app, create maximum payment limits, or cancel them altogether — all with the tap of a button.

“As a relationship bank for a digital world, we’re committed to offering innovative and convenient payment methods to businesses and consumers. VRP brings greater simplicity, control and flexibility to payments. It’s fast, cost-efficient and uses the very latest in bank API technology.” - Daniel Globerson, Head of Bank of APIs at NatWest Group

With NatWest, we are unlocking VRP for sweeping (me-to-me) and non-sweeping (me-to-business) payments use cases, going beyond the minimum regulatory requirements so our customers can make the most of all it has to offer.

Who else benefits from this agreement?

We’re solving an important pain point that, in times like these, businesses (quite literally) can’t afford to put up with any longer. Fees.

Did you know that over half of UK businesses face a £50 fee for every failed Direct Debit transaction, costing finance teams 4 hours a month to correct? What’s more, experts estimate that the cost per transaction of card payments for merchants has increased by almost 600% since 2014 as a result of rising scheme and processing fees.

Using open banking instead of card rails, VRP is a much more cost-effective solution for businesses, and just one example of how open banking is helping to relieve the impact of the cost of living crisis for businesses across the UK.

Want to learn more about how VRP compares to Direct Debit? Check out this blog.

One-click checkout payments platform Volume will be the first to deliver the new payment capability to its merchant customers, such as Nerdapp, as a result of our new agreement with NatWest.

“VRP has triggered the next wave of disruption at the checkout, and has the potential to be transformative for any business. At Volume, we are on a mission to remove the hidden fees of online payments for both consumers and merchants, and Yapily is helping us to turn that vision into a reality.” - Simone Martinelli, Founder and CEO at Volume

How is this helping the wider ecosystem?

Our partnership with Ozone API means that we are enabling more players within the open banking ecosystem to benefit from VRP. Together, Yapily and Ozone API bring a complete solution for banks and financial institutions to go beyond mandatory regulation and commercialise their APIs, a crucial next step if we are going to truly unlock its game-changing potential.

“This is a huge milestone for Yapily, and we are proud to be working with NatWest, Volume, and Ozone API at the forefront of payments innovation. This partnership is a clear signal to the market and other traditional banks that the ecosystem is evolving. Banks are not only throwing their hat into the ring, but going above and beyond. Those that don’t follow suit risk missing out on a significant opportunity to deepen relationships with customers, reduce losses to fraud, and stay ahead of the curve.” - Ben Aier, VP Product at Yapily

“VRP is the evolution of Direct Debit, standing orders, and card-on-file payments, where the movement of money is quick, cheap, and reliable. With NatWest, we are opening up new and exciting open banking use cases for our customers and helping to build a healthy payments landscape that works for everyone. NatWest is paving the way in open banking partnerships and we look forward to enabling the wider ecosystem to be a part of this innovation.” - Stefano Vaccino, Founder and CEO, Yapily

Our agreement with NatWest follows the launch of our VRP solution back in August. Curious about how your business could benefit? Get in touch to find out more.