NatWest continues to flex variable recurring payment muscle with Payit demo

Following its variable recurring payments (VRP) demonstration with TrueLayer in December, high street bank NatWest has followed up by showing off VRPs in its open banking payments app Payit.

Payit is aimed at helping mid to large corporate companies collect or send payments without needing to use card details and saving on the kinds of fees that card payments normally include.

The app has been a testing ground for NatWest’s open banking efforts in the past, being the first place that the bank rolled out open banking refunds in February 2021.

“As an early adopter of the new payment method, we are seeing a lot of excitement in the industry, with many customers contacting Payit about VRP,” said James Hodgson, NatWest’s head of Payit.

“Our pilot in Q2 will provide the opportunity to perfect the proposition for a future customer roll out, ensuring the best possible experience can be provided for both businesses and consumers.”

By demonstrating VRPs NatWest says it once again is at the forefront of open banking adoption, and is now racing towards piloting the technology in a live customer environment in the first half of this year.

NatWest will start its live customer testing of VRPs in its Rapid Cash service for invoice financing in H1 2022, and plans to scale up to a full commercial product by early 2023.

VRPs have had a somewhat troubled implementation, originally planned to launch in January 2022 the rollout was delayed by six months by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

The delay was supported by Open Banking Implementation Entity trustee Charlotte Crosswell, who warned that “most if not all the CMA9” would miss the original 31 January 2022 deadline.