First Visa A2A transaction completed in the UK with partners Kroo Bank, Utilita and Tink

Source: Grayling

Visa has announced that Kroo Bank, Utilita and Tink have successfully completed the first commercial variable recurring payment (cVRP)  through its Visa A2A solution in the UK, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of account-to-account (A2A) payments. The transaction, made to demonstrate an energy bill being paid to Utilita, was enabled through the Visa A2A open industry model. This transaction, along with multiple subsequent transactions, showcases the readiness of the solution to upgrade the A2A payment experience, ahead of its rollout in the UK.

In the UK, consumers commonly manage recurring bills and subscriptions using direct debit – a system that, while longstanding, wasn’t built for a digital world. Consumers often lack visibility into how much money will be taken or when, and the process lacks the robust protections they expect online. Visa research shows that 60% of surveyed UK consumers say they would likely try a new method – if one were available.

Visa A2A is designed to address these challenges head-on, offering a modern alternative for both businesses and consumers. It provides consumers with immediate payment confirmation and greater transparency and control to managing recurring payments. Visa A2A is also built to upgrade the A2A payment experience with enhanced consumer protections, similar to those provided with card payments, and a dispute resolution mechanism, that helps people get their money back if something goes wrong. Branded with the Secured by Visa trustmark, customers can be confident that their transactions are protected and secure.

The Visa A2A model is built on the principles of Open Banking, and banks and industry partners are joining to introduce standards and rules for cVRPs. Visa A2A is designed to work for all participants in the payments ecosystem and is built to be extensible across all use cases and sectors, with a key focus on bills, subscriptions and low risk ecommerce. The solution can help deliver on the widely recognised need to unlock the full potential of Open Banking in the UK, through its strong consumer protections, robust and sustainable commercial model, and known trustmark. This in turn supports the National Payments Vision to pave the way for more innovative and secure, everyday payment experiences for consumers and businesses that increase choice and help drive economic growth.

The steps of the first transaction:

This first transaction showcases how the ecosystem works seamlessly together to enable a secure, near-instant payment experience, making it easier and faster for customers to pay their recurring utility bills with confidence.

• Payment Initiator (Tink): Tink initiated the transaction on behalf of the payer, doing a funds check and triggering the payment flow.
• Payer Bank (Kroo Bank): Kroo Bank, acting as the Payer Financial Institution, initiated the payment directly from their bank account. The payment was sent in real-time, via the UK’s Faster Payments Service.
• Visa A2A: Visa orchestrated the transaction through its Visa A2A solution, providing the operating model, the liability and dispute framework and the user experience guidelines, including the ‘Secured by Visa’ trustmark, ensuring built-in consumer protections for the payment.
• Beneficiary Merchant (Utilita): Utilita demonstrated the creation of the commercial variable recurring payment mandate from their Utilita app. The mandate is designed to enable both customer top-ups in app, and off-session utility bill payments, with Visa A2A enabling faster reconciliation and improved cash flow, while providing their customers with a secure payment method they can trust.

Mark Wilcocks, vice president, head of product & solutions, Visa UK & Ireland said: “This marks a major milestone in UK payments innovation with the first commercial variable recurring payment transaction powered by Visa A2A. This breakthrough demonstrates how industry collaboration is transforming the way consumers and businesses manage recurring payments. For consumers, it means greater control, transparency, and security when paying bills – no more surprises or delays. For merchants, it unlocks faster settlement, improved cash flow, and a trusted payment experience for their customers. We congratulate everyone involved in this milestone and extend our thanks to our partners Kroo, Tink, and Utilita for their commitment to driving payments innovation in the UK.”

Danny Haynes, chief product officer at Kroo, said: “At Kroo, we’re proud to be part of a major step forward in how the UK moves money. By making recurring payments faster, safer, and more transparent, we’re giving people and businesses real-time control over their finances. This marks the next evolution for recurrent payments – the beginning of a new era in everyday banking, and we’re proud to be leading the way.”

Ian Morrin, head of payments at Tink, said: “By powering the first cVRP transaction with Visa A2A, Tink is helping to set new standards for speed, security, and transparency in recurring payments.  This is a key milestone, but it’s just the start for Visa A2A and the potential impact of this transformative solution. More choice and control is always good news for consumers and businesses.”

Ian Burgess, chief technology officer at Utilita, said: “Our commitment to technological leadership has always focused on empowering consumers, and payments are at the heart of that mission. That’s why we’re thrilled to have played a role in this groundbreaking achievement… a true ‘man on the moon’ moment for the evolution of account-to-account (A2A) payments. It’s important our customers have the same trusted security and protections they’ve come to expect from their cards.”

In the future, Visa intends to expand Visa A2A beyond bills and subscriptions to support new use cases in the UK, including ecommerce payments, with a phased approach.

Further reading: Visa to ‘upgrade’ Pay by Bank experience with UK launch of Visa A2A