Banking, investing, and online payments traditionally involved tiresome and paper-laden processes, however, with the rise of open banking and digitisation, things have changed. Central to this transformation in open banking is its impact on smoother wallet and account top-ups. Gone are the days of trying to track down the right sort code or adding and setting up multiple beneficiaries. Open banking offers a centralised and streamlined solution.

Let’s explore its transformation, especially when it comes to industries like spend management and crypto, and discover how platforms like Yapily are leading the charge.

The power of open banking: beyond conventional payments

Open banking has proven to be a revolutionary factor for financial services. By providing third-party developers access to financial data through a secure API, open banking empowers a fairer and better way for businesses and consumers to see their data and make payments. For the average business and consumer, this means unprecedented convenience: swift transactions, real-time balance checks, and a unified banking experience that combines multiple financial touchpoints.

One area experiencing significant disruption is account and wallet top-ups. Traditionally, these processes were riddled with delays, lacked transparency, and often had hidden fees. Open banking offers a shift to a new normal — a streamlined, transparent, and rapid approach to top-ups.

The industries bringing instant top-ups to their customers

To better understand open banking’s impact on wallet and account top ups, we need to look at this relationship in action.

Spend management platforms and open banking

Spend management platforms are becoming part of an essential toolkit for businesses and consumers aiming to gain control over their expenses. Yet, the benefits of these platforms were often hampered by disjointed top-up systems, which were time-consuming and lacked real-time data integration. Delayed balance updates and opaque fee structures meant that customers were challenged when making timely payments or critical investments, overall providing a poor user experience.

Not only that, but lurking security concerns due to multiple intermediaries being involved added another layer of complexity, posing potential vulnerabilities and undermining trust in the system.

Enter open banking. It has seamlessly integrated with these platforms, offering businesses real-time data on their expenses, as well as visibility on balances across any accounts that they connect to their spend management platform. This ensures that their account top-ups are smooth, and enhances overall financial efficiency.

Spend management companies enable their clients to connect and instantly top up their accounts, as well as viewing balances across all connected accounts. By offering this unified dashboard and fewer intermediaries, it ensures a safer and more secure experience, all while giving them the most accurate overview of their finances as possible. Their clients can even set up rule-based top ups reminders, to prevent their account going under a certain threshold. See how Pleo is doing this.

With the wallet and account top-ups facilitated by open banking, businesses can save time and money, while keeping customers on their platform and supporting them in their ongoing financial management journey.

Ready to see this in action? Read our customer success story with Pleo where they saw consistent month-on-month growth of customers using open banking to top-up their Pleo account!

Cryptocurrency and open banking

The cryptocurrency landscape has exploded, both in terms of value and adoption. Amidst this growth, challenges persist. Crypto enthusiasts often face hurdles while topping up their wallets, with delays that don’t align with the dynamic nature of cryptocurrency trading.

Crypto users wanting to top up their account using card transactions would involve numerous steps. Adding the card number, expiry date, security code, and then waiting for the card to be validated. All prevents instant action and taking advantage of a price movement that’s just right.

With bank transfers, users need to add their IBAN as a beneficiary in your bank and then make the payment, which often can take 1-2 days to settle. All defeating the purpose of that all-too-important trade in a volatile market such as crypto.

With open banking, these problems become a thing of the past. Instantaneous top-ups become the norm, removing wait times and ensuring users can trade without liquidity concerns.

With one click you initiate a connection to your bank, where all the details of a payment are pre-populated, reducing the risk of manual error. Once the payment is confirmed, you are automatically redirected to the original app, for a truly streamlined experience.

By simply confirming the payment you are then redirected to the original app for a truly streamlined experience. Get greater transparency and a reduction on fees with a fully embedded experience. Every transaction detail is available at the user’s fingertips, ensuring they’re always in the know. Investing in crypto becomes easier and more accessible as your customers move funds from their accounts into their digital wallets, all in real time.

Discover more about how Yapily facilitates smoother account top ups for crypto businesses and their investors.

Yapily: your open banking partner

Yapily guides businesses towards seamless financial integrations with our open banking API capabilities. As a leading open banking platform, Yapily offers a suite of payment and data products that make wallet and account top-ups effortless. Our robust API infrastructure ensures businesses can reap the benefits of open banking with minimal setup.

Moreover, Yapily emphasises security. In an era where data breaches make headlines, Yapily’s commitment to data protection ensures businesses and their customers can transact with peace of mind.

Another compelling feature of Yapily is its adaptability. Regardless of the industry or scale, Yapily is designed to cater to diverse business needs, making it an ideal choice for industries looking to introduce the power of open banking into their everyday financial operations. Yapily’s API can effortlessly merge with existing business systems, ensuring a smooth transition for businesses and their customers.

Next steps

Open banking is proving transformative, especially when it comes to industries like cryptocurrency and spend management. As businesses seek their next strategic move to provide a better customer experience, while reducing their costs, platforms like Yapily offer a compelling case: a blend of convenience, security, and adaptability.

If there ever was a time for businesses to consider open banking, it is now. With the range of use cases on offer and the backing of a robust platform like Yapily, the future of finance looks more open, integrated, and efficient than ever before. So let’s get you started. Speak to our expert team for a chat on how we can help your business today.