This means NatWest Group now has agreements with six payment providers to offer VRP as a new payment method – after previously making agreements with TrueLayer, GoCardless and Crezco.

NatWest Group will also be piloting VRP through Payit™ – its open banking payments proposition – by offering VRP as a payment option for NatWest Rapid Cash customers.

NatWest Group is the first UK bank to go beyond the requirement for banks to provide VRP for sweeping – the automatic transfer of money between two accounts belonging to the same person.

The bank is going further by offering VRP as a new and convenient payment option for businesses and consumers – complementing existing payment options such as Direct Debits and online card payments.

NatWest Group’s VRP offering enables payment providers to give businesses a new option for managing customer payments for a range of services, including utility bills, subscriptions and charitable donations.

It offers a smarter payment experience for consumers, enabling them to easily set up regular payments through their bank app, create maximum payment limits or cancel them altogether – all with the tap of a button.

Customers will be able to enjoy a smoother buying experience, with real-time notifications, and will be able to see all their payments in one place.

VRP offers a smarter experience for merchants, too, as they let merchants collect customer payments faster, in near-real time.

And, because VRPs are set up digitally, there’s no paperwork involved, saving time and reducing the risk of fraud and manual error.

Daniel Globerson, Head of Bank of APIs at NatWest Group, commented: “As a relationship bank for a digital world, we’re committed to offering innovative and convenient payment methods to businesses and consumers. VRP brings greater simplicity, control and flexibility to payments. It’s fast, cost-efficient and uses the very latest in bank API technology.”

NatWest Group previously announced that the first non-sweeping VRP payments were made earlier this year by NatWest customers to Charity Right, an international charity that provides children with nutritious daily school meals, and to Pink Chilli, a lettings software provider.

Now, by teaming up with Token, NatWest Group will be able to unlock a wider range of use cases for VRP. What’s more, by collaborating with Tink – a Visa-owned payments platform – NatWest Group will bring the speed and transparency of VRP to a range of use cases, starting with bill payments. And, by working with open banking infrastructure platform Yapily, NatWest Group will soon be offering VRP to merchant customers of Volume – a one-click checkout payments platform – such as NerdApp.

Todd Clyde, CEO, Token, added: “This is a massive development for Token, and for the future of payments. We’re delighted to be working with NatWest Group to unlock the full potential of VRP and look forward to engaging with more industry players. If financial institutions and fintechs work together, we have a tremendous opportunity to create a balanced, practical approach that will deliver on the promise for VRP to enhance consumers’ and businesses’ financial lives. Get it right, and VRP will ignite explosive growth for Open Banking-enabled account-to-account (A2A) payments. I think 2023 will be a very exciting year.”

Tom Pope, Head of Payments and Platforms at Tink, said: “At Tink we’ve been optimistic about the potential of VRPs to change the face of online payments for a long time, but to fulfil VRP’s market-changing potential, we need to go beyond sweeping, and enable commercial VRPs, as a better alternative to Direct Debits. We are proud to be working with NatWest in pioneering VRP for the UK market.”

Stefano Vaccino, Founder and CEO, Yapily, said: “VRP is the evolution of Direct Debit and card-on-file payments, where the movement of money is quick, cheap, and reliable. With NatWest, we are unlocking new and exciting open banking use cases for our customers, helping to build a healthy payments landscape that works for everyone. NatWest is paving the way in open banking partnerships and we look forward to enabling the wider ecosystem to be a part of this innovation.”