Mollie Launches new version of Pay by Bank

Mollie has launched a new version of Pay by Bank built on GoCardless’s open banking infrastructure, marking the first major product to emerge since the two companies combined earlier this year.

Mollie Launches Pay by Bank with GoCardless 

The service allows consumers to pay directly from their bank account within a merchant’s checkout, without needing to adopt a new app or consumer-facing payment brand.

It is available at launch in the Netherlands and the UK, with broader European expansion planned through 2027.

The move gives Mollie a stronger position in account-to-account payments by combining its checkout technology with GoCardless’s connectivity to more than 2,500 banks.

Fewer Steps, Fewer Opportunities to Abandon Checkout

Mollie says its direct bank connectivity allows a Pay by Bank transaction to be completed in three steps, compared with the five it describes as typical of other open banking payment journeys.

For merchants, that matters because each additional step creates another opportunity for a customer to abandon the payment.

The new service also offers guaranteed payments, instant confirmation and transparent pricing, all intended to provide greater certainty around whether and when a payment has been completed.

Crucially, the infrastructure supports more than one-off transactions.

Because Pay by Bank securely captures the customer’s IBAN at the point of payment, merchants can use the same relationship to move customers into recurring payments through Direct Debit.

One Infrastructure Layer for Multiple Payment Types

That combination is strategically important.

Rather than treating open banking payments, recurring collections and invoicing as separate products, Mollie is bringing them together on one technical foundation.

The company is also deliberately avoiding the creation of another consumer-facing payments brand.

Chief executive Koen Köppen said Mollie’s focus is on making payment infrastructure “reliable, invisible, and fully embedded” within a merchant’s own environment.

That positioning suggests Mollie sees the opportunity less in competing for wallet recognition and more in becoming the underlying infrastructure through which European businesses accept bank payments.

Transparency Becomes Part of the Open Banking Proposition

Alongside Pay by Bank, Mollie is launching a public Issuing Bank Performance Page designed to show how reliably individual banks perform within open banking connections.

The initiative reflects one of the persistent challenges facing account-to-account payments: the customer experience depends not only on the payment provider, but also on the quality and consistency of bank APIs.

Mollie is starting in the Netherlands because it believes the market offers the scale needed to demonstrate the model effectively.

The wider implication is that open banking payments are becoming less about standalone “pay by bank” buttons and more about creating a broader merchant payments stack.

If Mollie can combine fast account-to-account checkout with recurring payments, guarantees and stronger bank connectivity, Pay by Bank could become a more credible alternative to traditional card acceptance across Europe.