Zilch, a London-headquartered consumer payments platform, has partnered with Plaid to integrate open banking into its repayment experience, enabling its over 5 million customers to utilize streamlined payment methods directly from their bank accounts.
Through this collaboration, Zilch customers can now use the Pay by Bank method for one-off repayments, allowing direct bank account transactions with minimal steps. Zilch is also leveraging Plaid’s Virtual Account capabilities to enhance its payment operations, which includes improved settlement tracking and integrated refund functionality. These enhancements are designed to provide a smoother customer experience while simplifying reconciliation processes and reducing operational overheads for Zilch.
The partnership coincides with significant growth in open banking adoption across the UK, where usage has reached 15 million users, representing nearly one-third of UK adults. This marks the fastest growth rate for open banking to date, underscoring increasing consumer acceptance.
Joe Zender, Chief Product Officer at Zilch, stated, “We are building a consumer payments platform that drives the future of commerce, and central to this is providing flexible ways to pay. Integrating with Plaid is an important step that allows us to continue to deliver on this, enabling flexible, low-cost repayment options at scale, all while simplifying the experience behind the scenes. This latest announcement is further evidence of how we are evolving to meet the needs of our customers and offer a product that is transparent, cost-efficient and tailored to their needs.”
Zak Lambert, Head of European Products at Plaid, commented, “Pay by Bank is reshaping the future of payments across Europe. By combining Plaid’s secure, real-time connectivity with Zilch’s customer-first approach, we’re showing how open finance can deliver better outcomes for both consumers and businesses.”
Plaid, a data network that provides an analytics layer for financial services, offers secure and reliable connectivity to over 12,000 institutions globally and possesses expertise across 18 European markets. This extensive network is expected to support Zilch in delivering future scalable repayment innovations.
This partnership follows Zilch’s recent announcement of Zilch Pay, an innovative one-click button set for release in the first half of 2026. Zilch Pay will integrate Zilch’s app, digital wallet, and card, making the service available at checkout for various brands and further enhancing the consumer shopping experience.
Founded in 2020, Zilch aims to eliminate high-cost credit by offering a payment experience that combines flexible payment options with rewards, empowering consumers and connecting them with retailers. With a valuation of $2 billion, Zilch is backed by partners including AWS, Deutsche Bank, and Visa, and is recognized as the UK and EMEA’s fastest-growing fintech unicorn.
