It’s 2023, and enterprises are still verifying customers with paper documents, reporting from spreadsheets, and using BACS for payroll. In fact, around 49% of large companies still use physical documents to onboard new customers.

But there is a more efficient way… and it’s called open banking. Since it’s still (relatively) new, many companies don’t know what open banking can do for them. So, we’ve done the heavy lifting and compiled 9 use cases that are driving real value.

1) Know Your Customer (KYC) checks

Still using hard copies to onboard and verify new customers? You might want to think again because there’s been a record-breaking £9.2 billion in penalties for customer identification failures. Every day, large companies run thousands of KYC checks… and it can take days, even weeks, to complete a single one. But with open banking, customers can verify their identity in minutes using their bank account information.

How can Yapily help?

Yapily Validate lets companies verify and onboard new customers by accessing their bank account information, balances, transactions, and account details in one sweep.

2) Credit decisioning

Open banking enables lenders to access historical financial data for more informed credit decisioning. Advanced analytics, such as Transaction Group Analysis, helps to identify recurring payments, multiple income sources, and distinguish between essential and discretionary spending. With this deeper insight, lenders can reduce bad debt risk, increase profitability, and (added bonus) retain a strong market position by serving more customers.

How can Yapily help?

Yapily Data lets lenders go beyond outdated scoring systems with direct access to borrowers’ financial income history, transactions, and spending behaviour. And with Yapily Data Plus, raw data can be given context through enrichment and categorisation.

3) Smart billing

One-size-fits-all billing cycles? Not anymore. Sure, companies were once limited to offering a traditional monthly billing cycle, but this led to financial pressure for their customers. Now, companies can customise payments to fit their customers’ needs. They won’t go into overdraft, and companies improve their customer relations. It’s a win-win!

How can Yapily help?

Yapily Payments makes it easy for companies to request payments whenever, and wherever. Plus, funds settle in real-time giving customers peace of mind. For regular payments, our Variable Recurring Payments are faster and cheaper than Direct Direct.

4) Online checkout

By selecting open banking at the checkout, customers can instantly complete their purchases without merchants needing to store their sensitive information online. At the same time, merchants get instant settlement and no interchange fees. And soon, Variable Recurring Payments will allow customers to grant long-lasting consent, making future checkouts just as easy as clicking “Buy Now” on Amazon.

How can Yapily help?

Yapily Payments, and Yapily Variable Recurring Payments, facilitate real-time payments between bank accounts while reducing the risk of fraud or misplaced funds due to typos. This also helps companies save around 3% on card transaction fees, and the lengthy settlement periods that card payments bring.

5) Bill payments

Last year, the number of people using open banking surpassed six million. But what’s driving this fast-paced adoption? The answer is bill payments, because customers can now pay their utility bills via a QR code on their invoice or a payment link sent by text. Compared to current payment methods like card and manual bank transfer, it’s easier, faster, and safer.

How can Yapily help?

Yapily Payments (and soon, Pay by Link) lets companies create long-lasting payment links that can be embedded into QR codes or sent via e-mail. The QR code will take the customer to the invoice/bill confirmation page, and then to their banking app for payment authorisation.

6) Bulk payments

While individual payments can be relatively painless for companies, batch payments… not so much. Open banking helps companies orchestrate bulk payouts (like processing payroll) as an embedded process within their own platform. It’s really simple, just a direct API integration into their business bank account. No more file uploads or convoluted processes.

How can Yapily help?

Yapily Bulk Payments lets companies make multiple payments from a single bank account to a list of recipients in one transaction. Working in the background, our API is invisible to the end user and gives companies complete control of their payment experience.

7) Automated reconciliation

For companies handling large volumes of customer payments, reconciliation can be a tedious process. And you know what’s worse? When customers enter incorrect payment references and amounts. But open banking effortlessly streamlines the process by pre-populating the correct payment reference and amount, so there’s no room for error.

How can Yapily help?

Yapily Payments repopulates all payment details in the API request… the customer simply authorises it. And Yapily Virtual Accounts provides instant notification for incoming payments. Companies can have a single account for all their bank transfers that are exclusively for reconciliations, which can be settled into the main account at any time.

8) Variable payments

In the future, open banking will let customers grant long-lasting consent for variable payments, like their favourite meal box subscription, without a lengthy application form (Direct Debit, we’re looking at you). For instance, a customer might choose three meals one week, and then two meals the next. With open banking, their payment will adjust automatically.

How can Yapily help?

Yapily Variable Recurring Payments lets merchants and payment service providers use open banking for recurring payments of varying amounts without re-authenticating.

9) Personalised experiences

In this experience era, companies must move from offering mass products to tailored solutions. How? By leveraging customers’ financial data. With this data, companies can segment customers based on their income, spending behaviour, credit history, and more to offer tailor-made products, personalised pricing, and better-targeted marketing campaigns.

How can Yapily help?

Yapily Data lets companies personalise product offerings, engage customers, and improve conversion rates with access to customer purchase history. Plus, it complements other data sources to help companies build stronger consumer and business profiles.

Wondering why now is the time for enterprises to consider open banking? Check out this blog. Or if you already know it’s what you need, give this blog a read on how to get your executive team on board. Ready for Yapily? Check out our demos now, or get started with us.