Open banking

Open banking means that, with your consent, a bank must allow other licensed payment providers to use your payment account through a secure interface. A third party can, for example, initiate a payment from your account or read the account holder's name and transactions. In the casino world this technology underpins many fast bank payments, including Trustly and Pay N Play solutions.

How open banking works

The legal basis is the European Union Payment Services Directive PSD2 (Directive (EU) 2015/2366). It created two new roles:

• the payment initiation service provider, which can, with your consent, send a payment from your account to a casino or online shop;
• the account information service provider, which can, with your consent, view account data such as the holder's name and balance.

Both must be supervised payment institutions. In Estonia the financial sector is supervised by the Financial Supervision Authority (Finantsinspektsioon), whose register shows whether a company holds the relevant licence. To approve a payment you always use your own bank's authentication, such as Smart-ID, so the payment provider never gets your passwords. A broader overview is available in the Wikipedia article on open banking.

What it means for a casino withdrawal

Open banking mainly makes deposits and identity checks smoother. When you make a deposit through the bank interface, the casino learns the account holder's name and IBAN from the same transaction. As a result:

• the casino already has an account to send the withdrawal to, and the same-method rule is met automatically;
• part of the KYC data is obtained immediately, and documents are often requested less or later;
• the withdrawal can travel as an instant payment if the payment provider and your bank support it.

Open banking does not, however, remove the casino's duty to check the player and the source of funds. For a larger amount the casino may ask for extra documents regardless of how the deposit was made. The guide Trustly withdrawal describes the withdrawal stages.

Compared with a card payment, the advantage of open banking is that money moves directly between bank accounts and does not depend on the card network's settlement cycle. A withdrawal to a card may only reach your account after a few banking days, whereas after a deposit made through the bank interface the casino can send the withdrawal to the same account as an ordinary or instant transfer. On the other hand, not all banks and countries are equally well covered by payment providers, so the same solution may work more smoothly with one bank than with another.

Security and consent

With open banking you always give consent in your own bank's environment and for each specific action. Account information consent is valid for a limited time and can be withdrawn in your online bank. Even so, a few basic rules are worth following:

• approve only payments you initiated yourself;
• check that the control code in Smart-ID or another tool matches the one shown on screen;
• never share your bank login details with anyone, not even "customer support".

Frequently asked questions

Does open banking give the casino access to my account?

No. The casino itself does not see your account. Data passes through a licensed payment provider and only to the extent you consented to, for example for a specific payment.

Is an open banking payment always fast?

A deposit is usually instant. Withdrawal speed, however, depends mainly on the casino's processing and on whether the money is sent as an instant payment. You can compare casinos with bank payments in our ranking.

A convenient payment should not mean thoughtless play. If you feel you are losing control, see the responsible gambling page.