TrueLayer review: products, technology and pricing (2026)

TrueLayer is a London-based open banking company whose Pay by Bank network lets businesses in the UK and Europe take one-off and recurring payments and send payouts directly between bank accounts, without cards. Its technology centres on a single Payments API (v3) with merchant accounts, a choice of hosted, embedded and mobile checkout screens, and, from 2026, Nordic coverage through Zimpler and a planned credit layer from in3.

At a glance

Key figures

How the platform works

A Pay by Bank payment through TrueLayer follows this path, based on its developer docs:

1. Create. The merchant's server calls /v3/payments. All POST requests must be signed with a key pair whose public key is uploaded to TrueLayer's Console. The response includes a payment id and a resource_token.
2. Choose a screen. The merchant hands the payment to one of TrueLayer's authorisation interfaces: the hosted payment page (HPP), the embedded payment page, the Web SDK, or iOS, Android and React Native SDKs.
3. Pick a bank. The payer chooses their bank. Banks that are down appear greyed out, and a provider availability webhook tells the merchant when a bank goes offline or recovers. For euro payments through banks that support several schemes, the payer picks the scheme.
4. Authorise. The payer approves in their bank app (on desktop, by scanning a QR code where the bank supports app-to-app), on the bank's website, or through embedded fields for banks that use that model.
5. Settle and notify. Money moves over the local instant rail to the beneficiary account, which can be a TrueLayer merchant account. Webhooks, signed with a Tl-Signature header, confirm the final status; TrueLayer advises relying on these rather than the redirect.

Merchant accounts sit at the centre. Funds land there, the dashboard shows reconciliation and payment status, and merchants can set up automatic sweeping to their business bank account. Payouts and refunds go out from the same account, with retries when an instant payout route is unavailable. The HPP can also hold a single payment in a pending state so the merchant can run checks before it executes.

Recurring payments use mandates, including variable recurring payments (VRP), where the payer consents once and later payments need no fresh approval. TrueLayer's network also combines payment data with financial and identity data, which it uses for onboarding (Signup+) and account verification. Our open banking payments explainer covers how this differs from card flows.

Products

Payments (Pay by Bank)

One-off account-to-account payments for checkout, top-ups and deposits. eBay added TrueLayer Pay by Bank to its UK checkout in February 2026; TrueLayer connects to the buyer's bank, so eBay never sees bank login details. TrueLayer says Pay by Bank accounts for up to 17% of European ecommerce transaction value (undated, cited 29 May 2026).

Payouts

Instant withdrawals and refunds from the merchant account to customers. Gaming operator bet365 announced in January 2026 that it uses TrueLayer for customer deposits and payouts of winnings, and investment apps use it for account funding.

Bank on File and VRP

Bank on File, launched on 2 June 2026, lets a customer store their bank as a recurring payment method by picking it from a list and approving with biometrics. Consent covers amounts and timing and can be cancelled. Launch users were Trading 212, IG Group, InvestEngine and East Lothian Housing Association. It runs under the UK Payments Initiative, a scheme set up by the FCA with more than 30 UK banks and fintechs. TrueLayer plans to extend it to subscriptions, memberships and one-click checkout.

Signup+, Data and Verification

Products that use bank data for onboarding and to confirm account ownership. The HPP supports Signup+ wording within the payment flow, and Payments API v3 includes name and date of birth checks.

Credit (announced)

On 29 May 2026 TrueLayer announced the acquisition of in3, a Dutch provider of buy now, pay later credit built on bank payments rather than cards. TrueLayer says buy now, pay later will be the first credit option inside its Pay by Bank checkout, with longer-term credit planned later in 2026. The release did not say when the deal would complete or give financial terms.

Developer experience and integrations

The HPP is maintained by TrueLayer, so new countries and features appear without merchant code changes. It supports ten interface languages. Distribution partners named in TrueLayer's newsroom include Stripe (Pay by Bank in Finland through Kustom Checkout, January 2026) and SumUp (account top-ups across Europe, October 2026). Merchants already on Stripe may therefore reach TrueLayer through Stripe in some markets.

Payment methods, currencies and coverage

TrueLayer says it is live in 22 countries (October 2026). Its hosted payment page lists these markets as of 3 November 2026:

The Zimpler acquisition, completed in March 2026, adds Nordic merchant integrations and users. Rails used include Faster Payments in the UK and SEPA Instant and SEPA Credit Transfer in the euro area. Our real-time payments guide explains these rails.

Pricing model

We did not find published merchant prices on the TrueLayer pages we opened on 3 November 2026, so we cannot quote per-payment or payout fees. Because Pay by Bank does not run on card networks, there is no interchange or card scheme fee in the cost stack; our guide to how card payments work shows what those fees cover. Anyone assessing TrueLayer will need a quote covering pay-ins, payouts, refunds and VRP.

Recent launches

For the agentic work, TrueLayer says it has a prototype where a person approves a Pay by Bank purchase made inside an AI shopping agent, covering one-off payments and Bank on File mandates (22 July 2026).

Regulation in brief

TrueLayer states in its press releases that it is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and the Electronic Money Regulations 2011. Its Zimpler acquisition completed after approval from Sweden's Finansinspektionen, and it describes Dublin as its European centre for regulatory, compliance and risk work. Our guide on how to check a financial licence explains how to confirm an FCA authorisation.

Who it tends to suit

• UK and European merchants with high-value or frequent payments, such as travel, marketplaces and ecommerce, that want a bank payment option at checkout.
• Investment apps, wallets and other financial services firms that fund accounts and pay out withdrawals.
• Businesses that collect recurring payments and want an open banking alternative to card-on-file, via Bank on File and VRP.
• Platforms and PSPs that want to add Pay by Bank for their own merchants.

Similar providers include Trustly and GoCardless in Europe and Plaid in the US. See our Plaid vs TrueLayer comparison and the open banking hub.