Banked makes Aussie acquisition and calls for big brands to get behind US account-to-account payments

The co-founder of Bank of America-backed online payments startup Banked has called on big brands to support account-to-account (A2A) payments in the US.

Brad Goodall, who is also CEO of Banked, believes there is a growing momentum behind A2A payments, also known as pay-by-bank, following US retail giant Walmart announcing it was to offer pay-by-bank options.

The popularity of the Brazilian bank transfer payment method Pix and India's instant payment system UPI have also stimulated excitement around the alternative payment method to cards.

Goodall said the Walmart deal is significant because it is a household name.

He said:

“If we are going to start to see account-to-account payments become mainstream, it really does need the backing of big brands where customers are going to see it regularly.”

Goodall says in the US, it is important for big brands to support A2A payments, because it has a different culture to the UK, where regulators can help instigate change to payment methods.

London-headquartered Banked this week announced it has acquired Australian payment tech firm Waave, in an all-share deal that Goodall says is worth millions.

The deal means that Banked will ink a partnership with Chemist Warehouse, an existing merchant partner of Waave, which Goodall says has the brand recognition to Boots in the UK, to offer pay-by-bank to its customers.

Banked, which is backed by the Bank of America, Edenred Capital Partner and Acrew, is now offering its services across the UK, EU, Australia and the US.

Goodall adds:

"I think that a lot of our growth is going to come from the US.

"We started in the UK and I think we understood that there are a lot of businesses in the UK doing this and there was a lot of competition.

“The thing that we focused on is that we are live in the US, live in the UK, live in Europe, live in Australia, and we have a single platform.  I think we were able to do that early and I think we have been lucky.

“And I think it is harder for a lot of those businesses in Europe because they have really got to double down and focus on Europe.”