Exclusive: UK Government and TrueLayer strike open banking deal

UK taxpayers could be saved millions of pounds in payment fees folllowoing a nw deal struck by open banking provider TrueLayer and the Government’s 

The Crown Commercial Service, part of the UK’s Cabinet Office, has added the firm to its  Payment Acceptance Framework meaning TrueLayer can now provide public sector organisations with its Payment Initiation Service (PIS).

The CCS provides policy, advice and commercial services to the public sector with the aim of saving money for taxpayers.

Francesco Simoneschi, CEO and Founder of TrueLayer, says a new means of payment may, on the face of it, seem like minor news. 

“However, widening the way people can make and receive payments from the Government is very important. A significant number of individuals simply don’t have access to credit and debit cards." 

“This can essentially lock them out of a lot of public and business services. Payment Initiation solves this problem. It is also much faster and cheaper and if adopted across the public sector, could save taxpayers’ a huge amount of money.”

Payment Initiation allows payment for goods and services without credit or debit cards. This helps the financial excluded who cannot get debit cards. As a result fees are also much lower. It means if Payment Initiation is applied across the Government, it could save millions of pounds each year.  

As part of the agreement, the CCS has pre-assessed and approved TrueLayer’s PIS for public sector procurement. This means any Government organisation can quickly set up with TrueLayer to accept payment via the Payments API.