Open Banking payment provider Atoa approved as authorised payment institution

Open Banking-enabled payments provider Atoa has secured regulatory approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to operate as an Authorised Payment Institution, allowing it to extend its payment services to larger businesses across the country.

Atoa helps SMEs to reduce payment processing costs by up to 50%, by offering Open Banking payments as an alternative to both card payments and manual bank transfers.

It said the FCA authorisation boosts its ability to serve larger enterprises across multiple industries, including retail, hospitality, beauty, automotive, and professional services.

As a result of the FCA’s authorisation, Atoa will be able to offer a broader range of regulated payment services, such as payment initiation services, virtual account services – “powering” bulk settlement payouts for enterprise clients in collaboration with ClearBank – and payment account information services.

Since its inception in 2022, Atoa has received financial backing from Valar Ventures, Passion Capital, and Leo Capital.

In addition to expanding its suite of payment solutions, Atoa will continue to invest in product development.

Sid Narayanan, co-founder and chief executive officer of Atoa, called securing FCA authorisation “a game-changing moment”.

“From day one, our goal has been to help businesses break free from the high costs and inefficiencies of traditional payment methods, such as debit cards and manual bank transfers,” he said.

“Achieving FCA authorisation is not just a regulatory milestone—it’s a springboard for scaling our impact. We’re now in a position to serve larger businesses with even more advanced payment capabilities, and we’re only just getting started.”

Jason Drury, general manager at Ponko Cars of Cambridgeshire, added: “Before Atoa, we were paying thousands of pounds a month in payment fees… Since moving to Atoa, we’ve saved £6,000 a month in payment fees with up to 96% of payments going via Atoa now.”