GoCardless, the global leader in direct bank payments, has announced it plans to acquire Nordigen, the freemium open banking data provider, as it builds on its vision to become the world’s bank payment network. GoCardless will incorporate Nordigen’s next-generation open banking connectivity -- offering the widest coverage in Europe, connecting to more than 2,300 banks in 31 countries -- into its account-to-account network.

The acquisition means the fintech will provide free open banking connectivity at scale, opening up self-serve access to account information services (AIS) to everyone.  In addition, its suite of premium data products help improve outcomes across a range of use cases from credit assessments to customer engagement.

The announcement is the latest move from GoCardless as it accelerates its open banking strategy. Over the past 18 months it has launched its open banking-enabled Instant Bank Pay feature across multiple markets, as well as Verified Mandates, which combines AIS with direct debit to prevent fraud. This deal will enable GoCardless to acquire in-house open banking connectivity, which it plans to build on in the near future by expanding coverage and adding new payment types such as Variable Recurring Payments.

Hiroki Takeuchi, co-founder and CEO of GoCardless, said: “Over the past few years it’s been amazing to watch open banking grow from a trend on the horizon to a global phenomenon which has given rise to a market worth over $400 billion. We realised early on that this technology would drive bank payments for decades to come and over the last 18 months, we’ve accelerated our push into open banking as part of our vision to build the world’s bank payment network.

“The Nordigen acquisition will take us to the next level. By intelligently combining free, state-of-the-art open banking connectivity with deep payment expertise, we can now offer open banking-as-a-service to any developer, partner or fintech. We believe this open access will lead to experimentation, and that will create even more compelling use cases. We’re excited to redefine what open banking can do with the talented Nordigen team now on board.”

Rolands Mesters, CEO Of Nordigen, said: “At Nordigen our mission is to help businesses around the world adopt and utilise open banking, enabling greater financial transparency and financial inclusion. We share GoCardless’s excitement about the growth of open banking, and we’re delighted to join forces with a group of people who not only share our passion for driving game-changing innovation in financial services, but will also help us bring free open banking access to a far wider audience.”

Thie deal is expected to close later in the summer. Further terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.