Plaid

Plaid Link, the window in which users choose their bank, reaches more than 12,000 financial institutions in 20 countries, and 18 of these countries are in Europe. Auth retrieves the IBAN and BIC of a current account, so that a direct debit or a payout goes to the correct account, and Identity returns the name and details of the account holder. Transactions delivers up to two years of categorized transaction data, which budgeting apps and lenders read through an account information service under PSD2.

Mollie, the payment provider from Amsterdam, uses Plaid to replace its penny-drop check, in which a new merchant had to send a small transfer to prove ownership of the bank account. In an A/B test across the UK, Germany and France, the bank connection raised onboarding conversion by 10 percent. Plaid Income sorts earnings from bank data into salary, gig work, self-employment and benefits, and it opened for early access in the UK and the Netherlands in May 2026. Credit decisions of this kind are known as open banking lending, where the lender reads several months of account data before it decides.

Plaid Payment Initiation, marketed in Europe as Pay by Bank, starts a transfer from the account of the payer after the payer approves it in the banking app. Plaid moves money across 18 European markets through one integration, over Faster Payments in the UK and over SEPA Credit Transfer or SEPA Instant Credit Transfer in the euro area. Since November 2025, one click payments remember the bank of a returning user, so the bank selection step drops out in all 18 markets.

Variable recurring payments work only in the UK at Plaid, where one consent covers later payments without a new approval in the banking app. Virtual Accounts, an optional add-on, let a business collect payments, see when they settle and send payouts and refunds. Plaid offers these accounts together with the e-money institution Modulr, through Modulr FS Limited under FCA authorization in the UK and Modulr Finance B.V. under the supervision of De Nederlandsche Bank in the EU.

Other European providers of a payment initiation service include Tink, a unit of Visa, and TrueLayer from London, while GoCardless pairs bank payments with direct debit.

Plaid Financial Ltd, company number 11103959, is authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 for payment initiation and account information services, with firm reference number 804718. The company has its registered office at New Penderel House, 283-288 High Holborn, in London. In open banking terms, Plaid is a third party provider, so a bank opens its interface to Plaid only after the account holder has agreed.

For the European Economic Area, Plaid B.V. in Amsterdam is licensed by De Nederlandsche Bank and entered in its register under number R179714. The end user agreement of Plaid B.V. covers account information and payment initiation services for payment accounts in the Netherlands and the other EEA countries, which a license from one member state allows under PSD2. Neither of the two companies holds the funds of a payment, and complaints that Plaid B.V. does not resolve can go to Kifid, the Dutch Financial Services Complaints Board.

Moneybox, a UK savings and investment app used by more than 1.3 million people, has used Plaid for account top-ups by bank since 2021, and these top-ups grew by more than 100 percent in one year. Moneybox is building its Payday Boost feature on Plaid VRP, so that each contribution settles on the day the customer is paid, while a direct debit took five days. Western Union uses Plaid for open banking payments and account checks on transfers in the UK and Europe, and Bart Stencel, VP Omnichannel Marketing Europe at Western Union, called it a new, easier way of doing money transfers.

YouLend finances small and medium-sized businesses, works as the underwriting partner of Mollie and reads their cash flow through Plaid, with approval rates of 90 percent and decisions usually within 48 hours. When Plaid appointed Brian Dammeir as Head of Europe in November 2023, it named Checkout.com as a payments partner and Klarna among its lending customers. The crypto exchange Kraken uses the European coverage of Plaid for onboarding and account funding in several countries.

Plaid is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK and by De Nederlandsche Bank in the EU, and users authenticate directly with their bank during the connection. In the EU, a data connection now lasts 180 days before the user confirms it again, because the European Banking Authority extended the former 90-day rule in 2023.

Plaid supports 18 European countries: the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Portugal, Belgium, Austria and Finland. In each of these markets, Plaid aims to cover at least 90 percent of consumer and business accounts, and often more than 99 percent.

Plaid Financial Ltd is the UK company of Plaid, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and Plaid B.V. is the Dutch company that serves payment accounts in the European Economic Area under the supervision of De Nederlandsche Bank. The end user privacy policy covers both companies together with Plaid Inc. in the United States.

Western Union customers in the UK and Europe can fund a money transfer straight from their bank account, with Plaid connecting to the bank and checking the account. Bank funding allows higher payment limits and gives Western Union one common standard for funding transfers across Europe.