Luke Massie, CEO of VibePay tells Douglas Blakey how its ‘Channels’ feature marks a major evolution in how consumers and businesses will interact with payments in the future.
Specifically, VibePay’s ‘Channels’ represents a major step for the firm in its journey to rolling out its pro-offering.
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VibePay is building a new payment and data ecosystem directly on Open Banking. It offers an alternative to the traditional card and wallet rails.
VibePay CEO Luke Massie speaks with editor Douglas Blakey
“Cards and wallets are expensive, inefficient and add very little value. We have seen huge demand from people who want to avoid taking payment via cards and wallets. We have managed to find product market fit in the early days which is exciting,” says Luke Massie.
He adds: “Channels removes the need for users to scroll through multiple, busy timelines to manage transactions between friends, family and the wider VibePay community. Instead, Channels links multiple bank accounts and provides an ongoing, dedicated timeline of all payments between users and another party.
VibePay powers account to account payments between consumers, friends and businesses. Massie adds that it has launched Channels following feedback from its community that managing and keeping track of payments between people across multiple bank accounts, such as paying monthly rent or splitting bills, is extremely difficult.
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By GlobalDataChannels addresses this challenge by providing ongoing visibility of all transactions in-app in a new dedicated space. This will result in VibePay users having multiple Channels, providing a simple and holistic view of their financial world.
The journey to Pro: A new, post-transactional experience
The launch of Channels is the first step in VibePay’s journey to opening up a two-way dialogue between consumers and businesses in the future through its Pro offering. VibePay has plans to enable sellers and entrepreneurs – such as businesses built by content creators, video game streamers and social commerce sellers – to interact with their customers and audiences in new ways.
This will create a new value-add experience for businesses and reinvent how consumers engage with their favourite brands. By leveraging the power of Open Banking, the enhancement will ensure sending or receiving money is not always the end of a transaction, and instead enables for meaningful on-going interactions to occur in-app.
VibePay: committed to matching the services provided by WeChat
Massie says that the development of the Pro offering signals a significant step in the evolution of payments in Europe. Moreover, it highlights VibePay’s commitment to matching the services provided by WeChat and CashApp in Asia and the US respectively.
Says Massie: “Payments today are more than a one-dimensional transaction between business and consumer. They have become a commodity as the technical and legislative barriers are being removed thanks to Open Banking. This has put the onus on payment providers to offer a better post-transactional experience and create more value for users.
This opportunity has been highlighted by social commerce where there is a growing need for a multi-faceted user experience which encompasses every layer of a payment, from payment processing to post-transaction, whether it’s between business to consumer, or between friends and fan communities.
Taking embedded finance to the next level
“The introduction of Channels takes embedded finance to the next stage, opening the door to a new experience where users can get more out of financial service providers than ever before.
“In the future, we see Channels resulting in a two-way dialogue between a user and bank where they can ask for real-time balance updates or for additional financial products such as loans.
This interaction will reflect the strides taken by our peers in Asia and the US. By being the UK’s Open Banking champion and owning the relationship with the end user, we are uniquely positioned to capitalise on this opportunity in revolutionising the payment experience.”
