OpenPayd Asks

Embedded finance isn’t complicated. That’s why we set out to create a series of short explainers to explore what we do at OpenPayd and how it adds value to our clients. We call it OpenPayd Asks.

Here we’ve highlighted some of our highlights from the series so far, along with links through to the originals if you’d like to read the full story: 

OpenPayd Asks: Why does anyone need a virtual IBAN?

Even at 99% accuracy, that 1% of incorrect or missing payment references is a reconciliation headache. 🤯

This is what virtual IBANs address.

With a virtual IBAN, every customer has unique payment details with the company they are making payments to. Because they’re the only ones using those details, any payment to that IBAN is immediately added to their balance with the company.

OpenPayd Asks: Should I sweep client balances into a master account? 🧹 💵

Each client has a virtual IBAN which they send all their payments to. If the company receiving those payments issues 1,000 vIBANs, they now have 1,000 unique customer balances, with all their customers’ money held at the vIBAN level. 🏦

For a lot of companies, that’s a big improvement. Reconciliation is automated and missing payments due to human error are eliminated. 📈

But there's a drawback with this model: now there are funds spread across the hundreds or thousands of virtual IBANs the company has opened. That makes it difficult for the business to keep track of all those unique balances.

The solution? 🧐

We call it an ‘automated sweep’. It’s a feature we can turn on for our clients with the click of a button. 🧹

OpenPayd Asks: Where does the money go when a customer tops-up an account?

Let’s look at an online trading platform for stocks. It’s payday, so you top up your account via a bank transfer. The money leaves your bank account and shows up on your balance within the platform. 

That’s the part that you see as a user. But behind the scenes, a number of things could be happening ✨

Often, your money is moving (via a payment rail) from your bank account straight into the trading platform’s main bank account. 

The platform then sees where this payment has come from (thanks to the reference you added to it) and updates your balance accordingly.

That’s how things used to happen. But now, the investment platform might have a more sophisticated payment infrastructure behind the scenes.

OpenPayd Asks: How do I notify users their money has been received? 

If you’ve built an app for your business, chances are you’re already sending notifications to your users. Now you need to add payment notifications into the mix.

So how do you do that? The word you need is: webhooks. 

When funds are added to your client’s virtual IBAN, OpenPayd sends a ‘webhook’ to your systems. 🖥

This is basically a packet of information sent from our platform - it can contain any information you need. That could include the amount you’ve received, the currency, the vIBAN it was sent to, and anything else your systems need to know about an incoming payment.

OpenPayd Asks: What's involved in making a payment via API?

You wouldn't know it, but when you make a payment, you're being assisted by a little robot helper. 🤖

The robot takes some instructions from you about the payment you want to make. Once the robot has that information, off it goes and makes your payment for you. 💸

The information your robot friend collects is very simple…