Automotive

The complete Open Banking checklist for Automotive

You’ve decided you want to start taking account-to-account payments using Open Banking so you can offer your customers a more seamless and secure way to pay online and in your dealerships. What’s next?

2 years ago • 3 min read

With a number of Open Banking providers in the market, it’s important to pick the right one to ensure you’re partnering with a winner. We’ve put together a checklist of questions to ask when evaluating providers to make sure you’re getting exactly what you and your customers need.

Let’s start with the basics. Are they a legitimate provider? 

Before you spend even a moment engaging with a potential Open Banking payments provider you need to check the basics: 

  • Are they regulated as a Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP) by the FCA? You can find this out easily by searching for their company name in the FCA Register here.  

  • Are they registered as a UK business on Companies House? You can find this out by checking Companies House.

When you’ve narrowed down your list, ask the following questions to ensure you’re engaging with a regulated, professional and high-performing provider. 

Experience matters. Are they payments experts?

Payments are a critical business function and the company you entrust to process them needs to be experienced, reputable and trust-worthy. Don’t settle for less than experts. Dig into the leadership team experience and the founding story, make sure they’re not chancers looking for a quick win and ensure you’re working with a team who knows payments inside out. 

Have they built a full payments product suite for Automotive?

Open Banking alone doesn’t provide the necessary payments functionality to enhance business operations within your dealership and online. To make sure you’re getting a holistic product qualify that potential providers have built the following product functionality: 

  • Settlement accounts. Does the provider have settlement accounts? This is crucial to ensure reporting, reconciliation and cash flow is optimised. 

  • Full and partial refunds. Refunds happen every day in dealer management but not all Open Banking providers offer full and partial refunds. This is a crucial feature to ensure you can give customers instant refund experiences. 

  • Optimised UX. The best performing Open Banking experiences are multichannel, customers need to be able to make a payment easily on their preferred device. For example, if a customer starts a payment on a laptop but prefers to use their mobile banking app, they should be able to easily switch to a mobile journey and vice versa. Ask for a demo of this.  

  • Pay-by-link functionality. A critical part of in-dealership payments sits with payment links. Make sure the provider can offer you a pay-by-link solution which can be automated across email, SMS and QR codes.

  • Enhanced payouts. Enhanced payouts make the process of buying a vehicle from a customer quick, easy and removes the need for manual bank transfers. But make sure providers can offer instant, single and bulk payouts with simple verification and reconciliation.  

  • Enhanced reporting and reconciliation. This is a fundamental part of dealerships payment suites but surprisingly it’s not always up to scratch with some Open Banking providers. Make sure your provider can automate reconciliation through batch settlement and API.

Do they offer settlement accounts? 

Settlement accounts are an additional but fundamental part of an Open Banking payments product suite. Check with your provider that they offer settlement accounts to make batch settlement, refunds and reconciliation easier.

Will you get the support team for success?

Be sure to ask what support team you’ll be working with. You should have a dedicated commercial lead, integrations manager and customer success lead. Check what support hours are available to you, if they provide out of hours support and emergency SLAs. 

Have they got all of the regulatory necessities? 

Potentially boring for some but crucial to have. There are a number of processes that providers need to ensure they are abiding by the FCA Handbook to act as a legitimate financial institution. Tick off the list below:

  • A Compliance Officer independent of the commercial team 

  • A Money Laundering Reporting Officer 

  • Anti-money laundering policy 

  • Bribery and corruption policy 

  • Counter terrorist financing policy 

  • CDO Insurance 

  • Public Indemnity Insurance

Your provider should be happy to answer any questions you have, and be as honest and transparent as possible. At Vyne, we’ll be happy to walk you through each step of the customer journey, and find the right fit for Open Banking in your dealerships.

Ready to start accepting fairer, faster and more secure payments in your dealership and online? Click here to get a demo.