Lithuanian fintech startup kevin. has launched its first-ever PSD2-based open banking API for mobile payments from pre-linked bank accounts. Also, the company announced that it secured €1.5M seed funding for the launch of its payment solution to new markets. “kevin.’s solution, which enables merchants to accept payments directly from bank accounts via an API for services like parking, taxis, car-sharing, deliveries and insurance, is the first time PSD2 has been used to directly compete with card networks for this type of payment,” says the company.
Resolves challenges in PSD2
Notably, PSD2 is the flagship open banking regulation in the EU. However, according to kevin., PSD2 has so far failed to move beyond e-commerce to areas of traditional card network dominance, such as mobile payments for services like parking, deliveries or mobility. For PSD2 payment initiation, several authentication steps are still required. But with kevin.’s infrastructure, consumers can expect payments for these services to be handled in the same convenient way as cards, claims the company.