Global financial technology leader FIS today announced a new collaboration between its merchant solutions business, Worldpay from FIS, and Volt, an open payments gateway. The collaboration, announced at Money 20/20 Europe, will bring the power of open banking to merchants and give them the ability to take payment through open banking from consumers.

Adoption of open banking technology is continuing to grow worldwide, driving account-to-account (A2A) payments use among consumers.

Combining Worldpay’s strength as the No 1 merchant acquirer1 with Volt’s industry and technical expertise will give Worldpay customers access to open banking rails, and these new capabilities aim to capture the growing strength of A2A payments.

“Our strategic collaboration with Volt comes at an exciting time as open banking adoption gathers pace, revolutionizing payments across the globe,” said Sudev Balakrishnan, Chief Product Officer Worldpay from FIS. “Volt are a best-in-class technology provider with deep expertise in this space. Working together, combining their knowledge with our scale, we will be able to open up pay by bank opportunities for our merchants and potentially allow them to take advantage of this growing market by embracing A2A payments with a single solution.”

Alongside giving merchants’ customers more choice of seamless payments, this collaboration also brings a host of benefits for merchants, by potentially reducing the cost of payment acceptance, while offering near instant settlement of funds and thereby boosting their cash flow. As greater collaboration and interoperability between real-time payment rails are explored there should naturally be a growth in opportunities to use A2A payments for cross-border commerce, further benefitting merchants with global ambitions.

“We’re delighted to be working with Worldpay to give merchants access to our open banking payments infrastructure,” said Volt Founder and CEO Tom Greenwood. “Real-time account-to-account payments are experiencing hockey-stick growth around the world. This partnership will help merchants capitalize on that growth by providing them with a standardized, scalable solution that improves user experience and drives conversion.”

Worldpay enables merchants of all sizes to take, make and manage payments across channels, geographies, and industries. Over one million merchants globally trust Worldpay solutions to power their in-store, online and mobile transactions, fight fraud, optimize authentication and tap into value-added services that boost commerce. Additionally, Worldpay facilitates payouts to a broad network of suppliers and beneficiaries around the world, with capabilities to send money to approximately 225 markets in 146 countries.