Open banking’s commercial value has always depended on its integration into payment workflows rather than its existence as a standalone data layer. PayPoint’s completed acquisition of Aperidata, a UK-based real-time credit reference and open banking platform, is a direct expression of that logic: credit assessment and payment execution are becoming a single capability rather than separate tools with an integration layer between them.
Aperidata uses transaction-level data from open banking connections to provide real-time financial assessment, supporting payment plan agreements, arrears management, and consumer credit decisions. The partnership between the two companies predates this acquisition; since 2023 they have been jointly developing the Financial Information System Customer Support Tool, which won Business Partnership of the Year at the Credit and Collections Industry Awards in 2024.
Simon Coles, Managing Director for Digital Payments and Open Banking at PayPoint, described the strategic aim as bringing together Aperidata’s expertise in transaction categorization with PayPoint’s payments platform to improve outcomes for customers in financial difficulty across financial services, housing, utilities, local government, and charities. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
For payments and financial technology leaders, the deal reflects a pattern visible across the sector: open banking capabilities are being absorbed into incumbent payment platforms rather than growing as standalone intermediaries. As NAB’s acquisition of Banked demonstrated in the A2A payments space, institutions and infrastructure providers are moving to own open banking rails rather than simply connecting to them. The infrastructure layer is consolidating before open banking achieves full consumer adoption.
Source: PayPoint
