European bank payment provider GoCardless has joined the SEPA Payment Account Access (SPAA) scheme and is calling on banks to sign up to “drive innovation in European payments”.
GoCardless has defined the SPAA scheme as a new messaging ecosystem that aims to introduce a set of premium API features and services that banks can charge fintechs for access to.
An example cited by GoCardless is that banks will be able to charge payment initiation service providers for the provision of ‘premium’ API functionality, such as dynamic recurring payments.
Already this year, Tink, Token. io and TrueLayer have confirmed their participation in the European Payments Council’s SPAA scheme.
Tom Burton of GoCardless
Tom Burton, director of external affairs and public policy at GoCardless, wrote in a blog post: “Whilst the SPAA scheme is now live, GoCardless and other fintechs will only be able to bring the new services it facilitates to European merchants once banks also sign up.
“We are calling on them to do so and help us drive innovation in European payments.”
In the same blog, he wrote: “GoCardless is among the first to join the SPAA scheme because we think it has the potential to provide real value to our customers.
“However, this will only materialise if banks also join as both data suppliers and data users will be needed to create and offer viable products to merchants.”
Burton added: “We want banks to help build a new, innovative payments ecosystem that merchants and consumers can benefit from in the near future – and we believe they should get paid for their efforts.”
Further reading: SPAA – Sparking a homegrown pan-European payments revolution
GoCardless’ Tom Burton and chief product officer Andy Wiggan are both speaking at Open Banking Expo UK & Europe 2024 on 15-16 October. Click here to find out more about the speaker line-up and agenda.
