Account-to-account payments, straight from the bank.
Open banking initiation, bank transfers and real-time rails as an alternative to cards: lower cost per transaction, no card credential to store, and payment confirmation driven by the bank rather than by an authorization network.
A second rail, with a different cost and risk profile
Cards are not always the right instrument. For high-value baskets, account funding, B2B invoicing and markets where bank transfer is simply the norm, an account-to-account payment is cheaper per transaction and carries no card-scheme chargeback right. The trade-off is that confirmation and refund behave differently, which is exactly what this part of the platform is built to handle.
From request to reconciled
Initiate
The customer selects their bank. Where open banking initiation is available, Flowa Pay creates a payment request and hands off to the bank's own authentication.
Authorise at the bank
The customer approves the payment inside their own banking app or web banking. Credentials are never entered into your interface or ours.
Confirm
The payment status is returned by the bank or the rail. On instant rails this is near-immediate; on standard transfers it follows the rail's own clearing cycle.
Match
Incoming funds are matched to the originating payment request using the payment reference and, where used, a dedicated virtual account.
Reconcile & settle
Matched payments flow into the same ledger, statements and settlement reporting as card volume.
What bank payments & a2a covers
Account-to-account payments
Funds move directly from the customer's bank account to the collection account, with no card credential involved.
Open banking
Payment initiation through regulated open banking interfaces where they are available in the market, delivered with licensed partners.
Bank transfer
Standard credit transfers for customers who prefer to pay from their bank, including offline and B2B flows.
Instant bank transfer
Where an instant rail is available, confirmation arrives in seconds rather than at the next clearing cycle.
Local bank transfer
Domestic rails in supported markets, which customers recognise and trust more than an international transfer.
Virtual IBAN collection
Where supported, a dedicated virtual account per customer or per flow makes incoming payments self-identifying and removes most manual matching.
SEPA
Euro credit transfers across the SEPA area, where supported on your route.
SEPA Instant
Near-real-time euro transfers where the payer's bank and your route both support the scheme.
UK Faster Payments
Near-real-time sterling transfers where supported on your route.
Pay by Bank
A bank-selection checkout experience that takes the customer into their own banking app to approve the payment.
Real-time payment rails
Domestic instant rails in supported markets, which carry their own cut-offs, limits and confirmation behaviour.
Payment confirmation
Status is driven by the rail, delivered by webhook, and never inferred. A payment is only complete when the rail says it is.
Refund workflows
Refunds are executed as outbound transfers back to the originating account, not as card reversals, with their own status lifecycle.
Reconciliation
Reference-based and virtual-account matching, with unmatched items queued for review rather than silently dropped.
Transaction reporting
Bank payments appear alongside card volume in the same dashboard, exports and settlement reporting.
Why teams choose it
- Lower cost per transaction. Bank rails typically cost less than card interchange and scheme fees, particularly on high-value baskets.
- No stored card credential. There is no card number or token to protect, and no credential to expire or reissue.
- No scheme chargebacks. A2A payments have no card-scheme chargeback right. Disputes follow a different path, which changes your risk profile.
- Strong authentication by design. The customer authenticates inside their own bank, not in your checkout.
How you connect
- Hosted payment page: bank selection and redirect handled for you.
- API: create the payment request and manage the redirect and status yourself.
- Virtual accounts where supported, for self-identifying incoming transfers.
- Webhooks for initiated, confirmed, failed and refunded states.
What you can accept
- Open banking initiation
- SEPA and SEPA Instant
- UK Faster Payments
- Local domestic transfers
- Pay by Bank
- Virtual IBAN collection where supported
Availability depends on merchant category, jurisdiction, underwriting and the applicable payment or acquiring partner.
How it is controlled
- Customers authenticate inside their own bank; no banking credentials pass through Flowa Pay or your systems.
- Payment status is taken from the rail and delivered by signed webhook.
- Collection accounts and virtual accounts are provided by licensed partners under their own authorisations.
Flowa Pay provides the payment technology and orchestration layer. Acquiring, scheme settlement and regulated payment services are provided by licensed acquiring and payment partners under their own authorisations.
Common questions
It depends entirely on the rail. Instant schemes confirm in seconds; standard transfers follow their own clearing cycle and cut-offs. We do not describe a payment as instant unless the rail in use is.
Yes, as an outbound transfer back to the originating account. It is a new payment with its own lifecycle, not a reversal of the original, so timing differs from a card refund.
Not in the card-scheme sense. There is no chargeback right attached to the transaction, though disputes, errors and recalls are handled under the rules of the relevant rail.
SEPA, SEPA Instant, UK Faster Payments, open banking initiation and local rails are enabled per merchant, subject to availability, underwriting, jurisdiction and the applicable payment partner.
By payment reference, and by dedicated virtual account where that is supported. Anything that cannot be matched automatically goes to an exceptions queue for review.
Ready to put bank payments & a2a to work?
Talk to our team about your corridors, your volumes and the routes that fit your business.