Trustly
Trustly is a Swedish Open Banking payments company founded in 2008, enabling Pay by Bank, the direct account-to-account payment model where consumers pay from their bank account via a bank-authenticated flow without entering card details. It connects to over 12,000 banks across 33 markets, with strongest coverage in the Nordics, Baltics, the UK, the US, and Canada. It is one of the most established and widely deployed Open Banking payment providers in Europe, serving merchants in e-commerce, gaming, travel, financial services, subscriptions, and utilities.
The core product, Trustly Pay, works as follows: at checkout, the customer selects Pay by Bank, authenticates through their bank using their existing online banking credentials or banking app, and confirms the payment. The funds are transferred directly from the customer’s bank account to the merchant, with no card network involved. The merchant receives real-time confirmation and settlement is fast, typically same-day or next-day depending on the market.
For merchants, Trustly’s value proposition centres on cost and risk reduction relative to card processing. Because Open Banking payments bypass the card network, there is no interchange fee, no card scheme fee, and no chargeback risk under standard conditions. The payment is bank-authenticated and push-based, which means fraud rates are structurally lower than card-not-present transactions. Trustly’s founder has stated publicly that merchants can save approximately 1.5% on payment processing costs by switching volume from cards to Pay by Bank, which at any significant scale is a meaningful saving.
On pricing, Trustly’s standard transaction fee is approximately 1.5% of transaction value with a minimum charge of €0.80 per transaction. There are no setup fees or monthly fees for direct integration, though merchants accessing Trustly through a third-party PSP or payment orchestration platform will have the PSP’s margin added on top. Custom pricing is available for high-volume merchants, particularly in gaming, travel, and financial services where Trustly has deep sector-specific experience.
Trustly’s bank coverage is strongest in the Nordics and UK, which reflects where Open Banking infrastructure is most mature. In Germany, the Netherlands, and Southern Europe, coverage and consumer familiarity with Pay by Bank is lower, though improving. For merchants with significant Nordic or UK volume, Trustly is a genuinely cost-effective alternative or complement to card acceptance. For pan-European merchants, it is worth evaluating market by market based on where bank connectivity is sufficient to drive meaningful adoption.
PSP access is available through Adyen, ProcessOut, and a growing list of payment orchestration platforms.
Relevant markets: Nordics, UK, Baltics, US, Canada, and broader European coverage at varying depth
