Who Tink is
Tink is an open banking platform founded in 2012, based in Stockholm and part of Visa since 2022. Through one API it connects to banks across Europe to start payments from a customer's account, confirm who owns an account, and read balances and transactions with the customer's consent.
Tink AB is a payment institution authorised by Sweden's Finansinspektionen to provide account information and payment initiation services across the EEA, and a UK company of the group is authorised by the FCA. Banks, lenders and payment companies use it, which is why it is one of the open banking providers our accounts and checkout modules connect to.
What it does in your platform
Accounts & IBANs
Connects the accounts your customers hold at other banks. With their consent, Account Check confirms the account is theirs, and Pay by Bank tops up their account in your app straight from the other bank.
Checkout
Adds Pay by Bank to the checkout: the buyer picks their bank, approves the payment in their banking app, and the money moves from their account without a card.
How the connection works
One connector talks to Tink's API. Tink's credentials stay in the platform; the customer only sees Tink Link, Tink's flow for choosing a bank and approving the payment.
A buyer pays by bank
At the checkout, for an order in euros. The module knows the amount and the merchant account the money should reach.
A payment request is created
The module creates a payment request in Tink with the amount, the recipient's IBAN and the scheme, such as SEPA Instant. No money moves yet.
The buyer approves it
Tink Link opens in the checkout or the app. The buyer picks their bank and approves the payment in their banking app or on the bank's site.
The buyer comes back
Tink returns the buyer to the checkout with the payment request's reference, and the order waits for the bank's confirmation.
A signed webhook confirms it
Tink's payment:updated webhook, signed with your platform's webhook secret, reports each status change. The order is marked paid and the payment shows in the backoffice.
Next to other providers
Tink does not have to be your only open banking provider. The checkout can route bank payments between providers, for example by country, while merchants keep the same integration.
In the accounts module, the account checks and top-ups belong to the module, not to Tink. Adding TrueLayer, Yapily or Plaid next to it, or moving away later, changes a connector, not your app.
When Tink fits best
A strong fit when
- Your customers bank in several European markets.
- You want payments and account checks from one provider.
- You would rather not hold an open banking licence yourself: Tink can provide the service under its own.
Also worth a look
- A provider with deeper coverage in one market, routed next to Tink for those customers.
- A provider you already have a contract with: it becomes a connector too.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your Tink account and contract in place, for your markets and the way you are licensed.
The flows
We set up the Tink Link flows with you: which markets, which payment schemes, and whether Tink works under its licence or yours.
The keys
The client credentials and the webhook secret go into your platform's secrets and nowhere else, so every update is proven to come from Tink.
A full test run
The whole flow runs in Tink's sandbox with a test bank, from payment request to webhook, before your first real customer.
