Business that use open banking for payments report an average annual saving of 150 hours usually spent on operational tasks such as processing invoices and financial data, recurring payments and processing refunds, new research from NatWest reveals.
Payit by NatWest surveyed 150 business leaders across UK organisations with an annual revenue of £2 million or more.
Business leaders using open banking amongst their payment systems reported spending a monthly average of 44.5 hours on finance tasks compared to just over 57 hours spent by those who don’t use open banking. Across the year this accumulates to more than 150 hours, or over four working weeks.
Businesses without open banking typically spend £1,687 more on payment processes annually, and £1,117 more on card processing fees than those with the technology in place, representing an 8% difference in spend annually.
However, the report unearthed the barriers preventing businesses from implementing open banking, with almost half (48%) having concerns about cybersecurity risks.
Mike Elliff, CEO at PayIt by NatWest, says: “While the concerns around security and fraud are apparent in this research, businesses can be confident that open banking is based on the security inherent in your online or app-based bank account. Wider understanding of this could help tackle barriers to implementation and open opportunities for businesses to lower operational spend and move closer to their objectives.”
Learn more about payments at NextGen Nordics on the 23 April 2024.