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Zen.com has enabled Pay by Bank using Mastercard Open Finance for merchant payment acceptance and digital wallet top-ups across nine European markets. The companies say the service provides another way to pay directly from a bank account, alongside cards and other payment methods; customer uptake and transaction volumes were not disclosed.
Zen.com has enabled Pay by Bank through Mastercard Open Finance for merchant payment acceptance and digital wallet top-ups in nine European markets. The expansion gives participating merchants and consumers another way to make payments directly from a bank account, though the companies have not published transaction or adoption figures.
The service is available in Germany, Austria, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Lithuania, according to Finextra. Zen.com’s rollout covers two uses: consumers can pay merchants from their bank accounts, and they can use the payment method to add funds to digital wallets.
The arrangement uses Mastercard Open Finance and supports account-to-account (A2A) payments. Zen.com said merchants can access the service through a single integration across the nine markets. It did not disclose which merchants have adopted the option, how many consumers can use it, or whether every bank in those countries is supported.
Zen.com Chief Growth Officer Lukasz Neska said the service sits alongside cards and other payment methods. Mastercard’s Valerie Nowak, executive vice-president and head of open finance for APEMEA, said the partnership is intended to make Pay by Bank easier for businesses to deploy and scale. Neither company provided figures for payment costs, conversion rates, or customer usage.
A New Account Payment Option
The rollout adds a bank-account payment option to merchant checkout and wallet funding in nine markets. For consumers, that means a potential alternative to paying with a card; for merchants, it adds another payment route to offer alongside existing methods. The announcement describes the service’s availability, but does not establish whether it will reduce costs or increase completed purchases.
Pay by Bank depends on a consumer authorizing a payment through a bank account rather than using card details. If the process is straightforward and works across the banks customers use, it may give payment providers and merchants another way to handle online transactions. Its practical value will depend on factors not detailed in the announcement, including bank coverage, payment speed, reliability, and the experience of resolving failed or disputed payments.
The source cites a survey by Token.io and Open Banking Expo in which 72% of banks and 87% of payment service providers said they already offer or accept Pay by Bank. The report also says 59% identified recurring payments and one-click capability as essential to making the method a genuine alternative to cards. These are survey findings, not evidence that Zen.com’s new service has already achieved broad consumer use.
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How the Partnership Fits
Zen.com is a European fintech offering payment services, while Mastercard provides the Open Finance infrastructure used in this rollout. The announcement frames the partnership as part of a broader effort to connect bank accounts with payment experiences across markets. It does not describe the technical setup in detail or identify the banks and merchants connected through the integration.
Pay by Bank is a form of account-to-account payment: rather than entering card details, a customer initiates a transfer from a bank account using a payment flow supported by the relevant providers. The companies present it as an additional option, not a replacement for cards. The Finextra report notes that the rollout also includes wallet top-ups, extending the use beyond payments at merchant checkout.
The nine-country launch gives Zen.com a multi-market footprint through one stated integration, but availability across a country does not necessarily mean every merchant or bank is included. The source offers no market-by-market coverage details, launch schedule, or explanation of how the service handles different bank authorization flows.
“It gives our merchants and customers a direct, secure way to move money straight from their bank account, alongside the cards and other payment methods they already use.”
— Lukasz Neska, chief growth officer at Zen.com
Coverage and Adoption Still Unknown
The announcement does not state which banks are supported, how many merchants have activated the option, or how widely consumers can access it at launch. It also does not include transaction volumes, customer uptake, payment success rates, pricing, or comparisons with card payments and other transfer methods.
It is also unclear whether all listed markets launched at the same time or whether the rollout is being phased. The source does not provide information about recurring-payment or one-click features, which the cited survey identifies as important to wider adoption. Mastercard and Zen.com describe the service as direct and secure, but the material gives no technical or performance details with which to evaluate those claims.
Merchant Rollout and Usage Data
The announcement does not give a timetable for further markets or a next launch milestone. The immediate measure of progress will be whether merchants make Pay by Bank available to customers and whether supported banks provide a reliable payment flow across the nine countries.
Further information from Zen.com or Mastercard could clarify bank and merchant coverage, any expansion plans, and whether the service will add features such as recurring or one-click payments. Until the companies report adoption or performance data, the size of consumer demand and the effect on merchants’ payment operations remain unknown.
Key Questions
What has Zen.com announced?
Zen.com has enabled Pay by Bank through Mastercard Open Finance for merchant payments and digital wallet top-ups in nine European markets.
Which countries are included?
The markets listed are Germany, Austria, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Lithuania.
How does Pay by Bank work?
It allows a customer to make an account-to-account payment directly from a bank account, rather than paying with a card. The source does not specify the exact authorization steps or which banks are supported.
Does this replace card payments?
No. Zen.com described Pay by Bank as an option alongside cards and other payment methods. The announcement does not say that merchants must remove or replace existing payment choices.
How many people are using the service?
The companies have not disclosed customer numbers, transaction volumes or adoption rates for this rollout.
Source: finextra.com
