Millions of customers are set to benefit from simpler and more secure payments as leading open banking platform provider Token.io Limited makes history by becoming the first licensed Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP) to conduct an end-to-end payment through a public bank API.

The payment of £4.99 at 18:39 on Friday 1st June 2018, confirmed as the first of its kind by UK Open Banking (the Open Banking Implementation Entity), fires the starting gun on the new age of API banking in Europe, driven by the recent introduction of PSD2.

“This was one small payment for a PISP, one giant leap for the world of banking,” grins Marten Nelson, co-founder, Token. “Billions of payments will follow. Ours was the first.”

The payment was executed via the Token network using Santander’s API payment initiation endpoints. With the infrastructure operational, banks, merchants and other providers of payment and data services can now leverage open banking to reduce costs, generate new revenues, increase security and deliver a simpler, more convenient digital payment experience for the end user.

Less than one month earlier, Token.io Limited was granted authorisation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to deliver payment initiation and account information services, under the terms of PSD2.

Via its universal open API banking platform, Token enables banks, merchants and other third-party providers (TPPs) to connect to any bank in the EU for payments and account information requests, thereby solving the integration pain being felt across the industry caused by multiple, proprietary bank-APIs.