GoCardless launches its first open banking-powered feature in France, built to tackle fraud

Verified Mandates will help merchants reduce fraud, protect revenue and provide a better customer experience

PARIS, 21 September 2022 -- GoCardless, a leader in direct bank payment solutions, has launched Verified Mandates in France. Part of the GoCardless global ‘bank payment’ platform, Verified Mandates combines the Account Information Services (AIS) capabilities of open banking with bank debit to stop fraud before it happens.

This represents a new approach to tackling the age-old issue of payment fraud, whether it stems from identity fraud or “customers” that intentionally try to receive goods or services from merchants without paying for them.

The problem is particularly acute for recurring revenue businesses, with research indicating that  55% of French merchants on this model consider payment fraud a top threat -- or even the primary threat -- facing their business today. Despite this, over half of businesses (53%) say they still provide goods or services before confirming if a customer’s bank information is authentic and true. 

A few clicks, a better way

Until now, businesses that are especially exposed -- including those that invoice, offer free trials or ask for payment after usage -- didn’t have much recourse. But the introduction of Verified Mandates represents a new era of intelligent fraud prevention that doesn’t compromise on customer experience.

Verified Mandates works in a simple, three-step process which can be completed in less than a minute. 

1. A customer who enters a merchant’s checkout flow will be asked to complete a standard bank debit mandate creation form. 

2. They’ll be prompted to choose their bank, log into their online banking platform using their usual method, and authorise the setup of their direct debit mandate. 

3. The merchant will receive instant confirmation of the successful verification and the customer can complete the checkout flow as usual. 

Besides the seamless checkout experience, payers also gain peace of mind: bank-grade security, often with biometric authentication required, is much harder for fraudsters to overcome compared to, for example, using stolen card details. 

Alexandra Chiaramonti, General Manager of Continental Europe, said: “Payment fraud is a prevalent issue for merchants, but new technology means you can limit your exposure without reducing conversion or adding a ton of third parties to your supplier roster. Verified Mandates, which uses the power of open banking, allows you to authentic your payers as part of the payment set-up flow. This means you can protect your revenue without adding extra friction for your customers.”

The French launch follows the introduction of Verified Mandates in the US, UK and Germany. Any merchant that collects payments from one of these four markets can now benefit from instant payer and bank account verification. 

It also marks another milestone in GoCardless’ open banking strategy. The fintech launched its first open banking-powered feature, Instant Bank Pay, in 2021. In February this year it raised its Series G funding round to accelerate its growth in the space. Most recently, GoCardless announced the acquisition of Nordigen, the freemium open banking data provider, to combine broad open banking connectivity with bank payment expertise.

Notes to Editors

About GoCardless

GoCardless is a global leader in direct bank payment solutions, making it easy to collect both recurring and one-off payments directly from customers' bank accounts through direct debit and open banking. The GoCardless global payments network and technology platform take the pain out of getting paid for 75,000 businesses worldwide, from multinational corporations to small businesses. Each year GoCardless processes over US$30 billion of payments across more than 30 countries. GoCardless is headquartered in the UK, with additional offices in Australia, France, Germany and the United States. For more information, please visit www.gocardless.com and follow us on Twitter @GoCardless. 

© 2022 GoCardless Ltd. All Rights Reserved. GoCardless is a registered trademark of GoCardless Ltd in multiple countries. Third party trademarks mentioned above are owned by their respective companies. Unless explicitly identified as such, nothing in this press release should be construed to the contrary, or as an approval, endorsement or sponsorship by any third parties of GoCardless Ltd. or any aspect of this press release.