Account-to-account
Pay by Bank
Direct bank-to-bank payments via open banking
Accept account-to-account payments directly from the customer's bank account, with no card scheme fees and no chargebacks.
About Pay by Bank
Pay by Bank uses open banking (PSD2) APIs to move money directly from the customer's bank account to the merchant — no card scheme intermediary, no card data, no chargebacks, and significantly lower fees than card processing. Best suited to high-ticket transactions where the savings on interchange fees are meaningful, and to use cases where chargebacks are problematic.
When to enable Pay by Bank
Recommended for high-ticket online transactions, B2B payments, government and utility payments, and anywhere chargebacks are a meaningful operational cost. Particularly attractive in markets with strong open banking adoption.
Customer base
Banked consumers in markets with mature open banking infrastructure. Skews toward customers comfortable with modern banking apps.
What merchants build with Pay by Bank
Common use cases where partners and merchants enable this method through Surfboard.
High-ticket retail and electronics
Travel and hospitality booking
B2B and wholesale payments
Government, utility, and public-sector billing
Subscription services where lower fees matter
Use cases where chargebacks are operationally painful
How to accept Pay by Bank on Surfboard
Pay by Bank runs on the same Payment Methods system as every other method on Surfboard. Enable it per merchant, store, or terminal — through the portal or the API, no re-deployment required.
Enable in the portal or via API
Partners flip Pay by Bank on for their merchants in the Partner Portal, merchants enable it for their own stores in the Merchant Portal, and developers can do the same programmatically through the Payment Methods API. Surfboard handles scheme registration where required.
Available everywhere
Becomes available immediately on the channels Pay by Bank supports — in-store terminals, online checkout, SoftPOS, and unattended where applicable.
One settlement
Pay by Bank transactions roll into the same settlement reports as every other payment method on the platform — no separate reconciliation pipeline.
