UK-based SME business banking provider Allica Bank has introduced a new top-up service built on Yapily’s Open Banking infrastructure, to give its customers an easier and faster way to deposit funds into their savings account.
The new partnership between Yapily and Allica Bank means that, instead of manually authorising and transferring funds between apps and accounts, business owners can log into their Allica account, select the amount they want to top up, and authorise the payment.
This money can either sit in the business’ Allica current account, or be transferred into its instant access ‘Savings Pot’.
According to Allica Bank and Yapily, small businesses in the UK are “disproportionately impacted” by time-consuming and “error-prone” manual processes, which can result in misdirected payments, delayed transfers, and the need to log into multiple platforms, creating friction.
Yapily’s technology enables Allica’s business customers to initiate payments in real time, ensuring funds are transferred directly, removing the need for multiple logins or manual steps.
The new feature is the first of Yapily’s Open Banking solutions to be rolled out to Allica Bank’s customers, with the two companies stating there will be more to follow in the coming months.
Stefano Vaccino, founder and chief executive officer of Yapily, said: “This partnership allows Allica Bank to bring the speed, simplicity, and security of Open Banking to their SME customers, empowering them to manage their finances with greater efficiency.
“We greatly value Allica Bank’s trust in our capabilities and are delighted that they see Open Banking as a core enhancer of their products.”
Allica Bank’s Nida Sattar
He added: “By removing manual processes and reducing errors, we’re not just helping Allica Bank’s customers save time, but allowing them to focus on growing their businesses.”
To date, Yapily has raised $69.4 million in funding and continues to scale across Europe.
Allica Bank’s product director for payments, Nida Sattar, said that the bank’s focus is on how it can make life easier for customers, “alongside the human support they get from their relationship manager”.
“Being able to easily and quickly top-up your account, rather than faffing around with manual payments, is one great example of this. And using Open Banking in this way provides important security benefits for our customers, too,” she added.
“Yapily has been great to partner with on this. They totally got what we wanted to do, and we’re already exploring how else we can deepen our use of Open Banking further with our current account and other products.”
Further reading: Yapily, Allica Bank discuss how Open Banking is helping UK SMEs scale
