If you’re a PSP operating in the UK or EU, chances are you’re looking for better ways to help your SME clients send multiple payments at once — whether that’s to employees, suppliers, gig workers, or customers.

But when you explore your options, you’ll quickly run into two terms that sound similar but aren’t the same: batch payments and bulk payments.

These terms are often conflated. However, if you want to build an efficient, scalable mass payments experience into your product, the distinction matters, and it’s essential to understand which one is right for you.

This guide breaks it down and shows why bulk payments powered by open banking are often the better fit for modern PSPs and their customers.

In this article:

• What are batch payments
• What are bulk payments
• Batch payments vs bulk payments: key differences
• Why bulk payments are better for PSPs
• Why use Yapily to offer open banking bulk payments
• Proven results: How Crezco and Adyen use Yapily

Looking for an easy way to help SMEs send multiple payments simultaneously? Open banking bulk payments might be right for you. Talk to an open banking expert at Yapily.

What are batch payments?

Batch payments group multiple individual payment instructions together and submit them for processing in one go. Each transaction is still processed independently, but they are initiated as part of a collective batch, typically using a formatted file.

This method is common in legacy payment systems. In the UK, batch payments are most often submitted via BACS (Bankers’ Automated Clearing Services), which processes Direct Credit files on a three-day cycle: Day 1 for submission, Day 2 for processing, and Day 3 for settlement.

In the EU, particularly across SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area), batch files are typically submitted using ISO 20022-formatted XML messages, such as for SEPA Credit Transfers (SCTs). These payments usually settle within one business day, depending on the receiving bank.

Batch payments are well-suited for repetitive, scheduled transactions like payroll or standard supplier payments, where all recipients receive funds on the same day and in the same way.

However, they offer limited flexibility. The payment details within a batch are often constrained to similar formats, currencies, and schedules. Changes to one part of a batch usually require regenerating and resubmitting the entire file, which can be operationally inefficient, especially if errors are discovered late in the process.

For PSPs, the rigidity and delay inherent in batch systems can be a serious limitation, especially when your clients want real-time or varied payments.

What are bulk payments?

Bulk payments are a more flexible, modern way to send multiple payments at once. Instead of uploading a batch file to a bank or third party, you can initiate multiple varied transactions through a single API request or action.

Although each payment in a bulk submission is distinct — with its own amount, destination, and schedule — they’re authorised and executed together in one streamlined action. This means users don’t have to approve or initiate each payment individually, even when the details vary. Instead, they get the flexibility of varied payouts with the simplicity of a single workflow.

Rather than relying on legacy clearing systems, bulk payments work by initiating direct, account-to-account transfers using real-time payment schemes like Faster Payments in the UK and SEPA Instant in the EU. That means settlement can be near-instant, 24/7, and without the involvement of card networks or clearing bureaus.

This flexibility makes bulk payments ideal for PSPs that want to give their users full control — enabling a single business to pay (for example) 100 suppliers, 10 freelancers, and 1 investor all in one go, using different currencies, amounts, and payment types if necessary.

With bulk payments, you can offer your customers a faster, more intuitive way to process large volumes of payments without added friction. It also reduces operational overhead, improves traceability, and ensures a more scalable, real-time payment experience.

Batch payments vs bulk payments: key differences

Why bulk payments are better for PSPs

As a PSP, your platform’s value lies in helping clients move money quickly, easily, and at scale. Legacy batch payments might technically support mass payouts, but they come with constraints that limit what you can offer, from rigid formats to long settlement times and manual workflows.

Bulk payments, on the other hand, are purpose-built for the kinds of experiences modern businesses expect. They’re fast, flexible, and developer-friendly, and they allow you to embed seamless mass payment flows into your product, no matter your industry or user base.

With bulk payments, you’re not just helping clients send money. You’re enabling them to automate operationally critical workflows, reduce admin, and deliver a better experience to their own end users.

Crucially, you’re also helping them reduce transaction fees. Traditional methods like BACS or card-based payouts often involve setup charges, bureau fees, or per-payment processing costs. Bulk payments via open banking use direct account-to-account rails, eliminating middlemen and significantly lowering the cost per transaction, especially at scale.

That’s where real differentiation lies, and it’s why more PSPs are adopting open banking infrastructure to power these capabilities.

Bulk payment use cases

• Payroll automation: Let SME clients pay employees in a few clicks. No more BACS files, portals, or third-party software. You can offer instant or scheduled salary runs that settle the same day.
• Supplier and invoice payments: Help businesses pay multiple vendors at once, even when invoices have different due dates, currencies, or payment types. You can support weekly runs, scheduled batches, or just-in-time payouts with full transparency and control.
• Gig economy and freelancer payouts: Platforms working with contractors across the UK and EU can group 50 or 500 payments into one submission, with each worker paid the right amount, in the right currency, to the right account. This eliminates the need for tedious CSV imports or cross-border headaches.
• Refunds and claims: Retailers, logistics platforms, or insurers can use your platform to automate bulk refunds and claim settlements, reducing time-to-resolution and operational costs.
• Commission or incentive payments: Whether it’s a staffing agency, marketplace, or affiliate platform, you can support high-volume commission runs — daily, weekly, or event-triggered — without tying users to legacy payment flows.

Each of these use cases benefits from what bulk payments do best: real-time initiation, flexible payment logic, reduced friction, and full integration into the PSP’s user journey. Whether your clients operate locally or across the UK and EU, bulk payments let you meet their demands without compromising on cost, speed, or control.

Why use Yapily to offer open banking bulk payments

Yapily is the leading open banking infrastructure provider for platforms that need to move money: fast, flexibly, and at scale.

We give you the tools to offer seamless bulk payments, smart onboarding, and secure financial data access through a single, developer-friendly API.

Whether you’re a PSP looking to build mass payout capabilities, streamline KYB, or expand across the UK and EU, Yapily is the infrastructure behind the scenes that helps you do it.

Here are three reasons to choose Yapily:

1. One API to connect with nearly 2,000 banks across the UK and EU

If you’re a PSP serving businesses across the UK and Europe, you need consistent, reliable bank connectivity, without region-specific limitations or clunky multi-provider setups. Yapily gives you access to nearly 2,000 banks in 19 countries through a single integration. That includes full support for Faster Payments in the UK, SEPA Credit Transfers, and SEPA Instant across the EU.

This isn’t just about broad reach. While many open banking platforms focus only on consumer accounts, Yapily is built for any use case.

Our infrastructure has been specifically tested and optimised for business account access, which means better coverage, fewer failures, and more reliable performance for the SME users you’re supporting.

You don’t need to maintain separate connections, patch together different partners, or localise integrations market by market. With Yapily, you can expand across borders with one API , keeping your costs and operational overhead low, while delivering a consistent experience to users wherever they’re based.

2. Full control over your product experience, from UI to payment logic

Yapily’s Bulk Payments API is built to give you complete flexibility. You can send multiple payments in a single call, each with its own destination, amount, currency, schedule, and payment type — whether that’s SEPA Instant, Faster Payments, or traditional SEPA Credit. You’re not stuck building one-size-fits-all flows. You can power everything from recurring payroll to real-time freelancer disbursements, invoice runs, refunds, or commission payments — all in a format that fits your platform and your users.

And just as importantly, you choose how to deliver that experience.

With our Direct Integration, you can embed the full payment journey into your own product. You design the interface, and you control the flow. Yapily handles the connections and authorisation behind the scenes, but your users stay within your branded experience from start to finish.

If you need to move faster, our Hosted Solution offers a secure, pre-built UI with your branding. It’s a quick way to launch, without sacrificing the look and feel your users expect. Many PSPs start with hosted pages while they build out a custom front end, giving them the freedom to iterate without delaying time to market.

Either way, you get the same robust infrastructure and payment flexibility. Your users get a fast, seamless experience. And you stay in control.

3. One platform for payments, onboarding, and compliance workflows

Yapily isn’t just a bulk payments provider. As both a licensed Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP) and Account Information Service Provider (AISP), we give you everything you need to handle onboarding, KYB, account validation, affordability checks, and more — all within the same API.

You can use Yapily to:

• Verify business identity during onboarding
• Confirm account ownership before payouts
• Assess affordability with real-time account data
• Enrich transaction data to categorise spend and identify merchants

We built Data Plus to make raw financial data usable. It helps you understand how a business operates by recognising patterns, normalising merchant names, and applying categorisation logic. This not only speeds up onboarding but also helps you deliver smarter user journeys and meet AML or regulatory requirements without adding manual overhead.

It’s the kind of capability that’s hard to piece together from multiple vendors. With Yapily, you don’t have to. You can handle everything from first touch to final payment in one place.

Proven results: How Crezco and Adyen use Yapily

Yapily’s infrastructure is already trusted by PSPs and fintech leaders across Europe.

For example, UK-based PSP Crezco used Yapily’s Bulk Payments API to transform how SMEs pay invoices for their client, Xero. Instead of uploading CSVs or jumping between bank portals, users can now authorise and pay multiple invoices directly from their accounting dashboard. It’s a smoother, faster, and far more efficient way to manage B2B payments — all powered by Yapily behind the scenes.

Read the full case study: How Crezco + Yapily optimise payments for 5,000+ businesses

Adyen, one of Europe’s most advanced payments platforms, uses Yapily to streamline merchant onboarding. Through our account information services, Adyen can access verified financial data from banks across the UK and EU, speeding up KYB processes and enabling faster, more secure verification for their global clients. Adyen also offers Yapily-powered data services as part of its value proposition to customers.

These case studies reflect exactly what Yapily is designed for: helping PSPs deliver reliable, scalable, and high-impact financial experiences without needing to manage the complexity themselves.