A2A payments explained

Account-to-account (A2A) payments move funds between bank accounts through an interbank payment system. For example, when a customer chooses “Pay by bank” at checkout, they are opting to send a payment directly from their bank account rather than using a credit or debit card. It’s a secure and reliable way to take payment, preferred in many countries where local payments infrastructure offers fast, low-cost fund transfers. In B2B, C2B and B2C contexts, it is generally used for recurring or high-value transactions. 

At Checkout.com, we support merchants with bank payouts capabilities (known as pay to bank), as well as consumer payment methods such as pay by bank and (coming soon) open banking. View our directory of ~50 payment methods for more detailed information on A2A coverage in your desired regions.

In this guide, we explain the best uses of account-to-account payments, weigh the benefits and drawbacks, and describe the regional A2A payment systems you’re likely to come across. 

What are account-to-account (A2A) payments?

A2A, which stands for account-to-account payments, are electronic fund transfers directly from one bank account to another. Funds are generally settled to the recipient's account quickly, which is why you’ll often see A2A payment methods referred to as real-time payments. They can be used to make payments from business to consumer, consumer to business, between peers, or from an individual to another of their own accounts. A2A payments use bank rails, and settlement can be real time or same day or next day, depending on the use case, fees, and the customer's preferences for speed.

Examples of payment methods that use A2A fund transfer include ACH debit in the US, Bacs Direct Debit in the UK, and Pix in Brazil.

How do A2A payments work?

Account-to-account payments typically use bank-operated or bank-connected payment rails to move funds between accounts, although some transfers can be completed internally on a bank’s or payment provider’s ledger.

From the customer’s point of view, the payment process is broadly similar. The customer selects the payment method at checkout, logs into their payment service app and either types in the payee’s details, scans a QR code from the recipient, or simply accepts a request to authorize payment. Once the customer confirms the payment, the funds are transferred through clearing and settlement infrastructure. 

A2A payments typically require a lot more trust between the sender and receiver of funds than credit or debit card payments, as transactions aren’t always easy to reverse and the sender usually cannot claim a chargeback. 

To collect ongoing payments from a customer (such as utility charges or payment for a subscription), you must obtain explicit consent and make the terms of future payments very clear. Make sure you review the specific rules of the relevant payment service to ensure you meet its mandates.

You can collect A2A payments conveniently with an all-in-one interface such as Flow from Checkout.com that ensures transactions are secure and fully compliant. 

Types of A2A payment

A2A transfers are considered a convenient, secure, and cost-efficient way to send funds to trusted recipients.

Business-to-Business (B2B)

A2A payments are commonly used for transactions between businesses, such as to pay contractors or vendors for products or services. Reasons to use A2A for B2B include to save on costs and to streamline operations and reporting.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

Businesses use A2A payments to directly pay their customers or clients. This can include paying employee salaries, issuing customer refunds, or settling insurance claims. Checkout.com’s Bank Payouts are best suited to periodic, high-value transactions.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P)

A2A payments allow direct money transfers between bank accounts. This means friends, family, or anyone else can use A2A payments to split costs, cover bills or repay shared expenses without handling cash. Wero and BLIK are two examples of consumer payment services that support peer-to-peer transfers in Europe.

Consumer-to-Business (C2B)

The consumer may choose the option to “Pay by bank” at checkout to settle a utility bill, pay a subscription fee or purchase items online. A customer may also set up ongoing A2A payments to a business through an open banking service provider: for example, where supported in the UK, commercial Variable Recurring Payments (cVRP) allow a regulated payment provider to initiate payments to a specified business within set limits.

Me-to-Me

Individuals and businesses can utilize A2A payments to shift funds between their own bank accounts. This could mean moving money from a checking account to a savings account at a different bank or consolidating funds from multiple accounts for easier accounting.

Major payment systems for regional A2A payments

There is no single global payment system for account-to-account payments; different countries and regions operate their own interbank payment systems.

Here are some examples of major regional A2A payment systems:

• Aani – the UAE’s national instant A2A payment platform, operated by Al Etihad Payments, a subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE. 
• ACH (Automated Clearing House) Network – the main system in the United States for electronic bank credits and debits, handling various types of transactions, including direct deposits, bill payments, and person-to-person transfers.
• Bacs – the UK retail payment system supporting Bacs Direct Credit and Direct Debit. Operated by Pay.UK, it is commonly used for payroll, household bills, and recurring service payments.
• Bahrain EFTS (Electronic Fund Transfer System) – underpinning the payment services of Fawri and Fawri+, which customers access through an app called BenefitPay.
• BI-FAST – Indonesia’s real-time retail payment infrastructure, launched by Bank Indonesia in 2021. It now offers individual credit transfers, bulk transfers, request-to-pay and direct debit.
• CHAPS (Clearing House Automated Payment System) – for high-value sterling transactions with same-day settlement in the UK, operated by the Bank of England.
• FAST (Fast and Secure Transfers) network – Singapore’s electronic fund transfer service that allows bank-to-bank transfers in Singapore Dollars. It powers PayNow, which launched in 2021. 
• Pix and the Instant Payments System (SPI) – Brazil’s instant A2A payment ecosystem, created and governed by the Central Bank of Brazil.‍
• SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) payment schemes – a common framework for euro-denominated A2A payments across participating European countries. Its schemes include SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Instant Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit, with harmonized processing rules and technical messaging standards.‍
• Wero – launched by the European Payments Initiative in July 2024, with 53 million users by May 2026. Send funds peer-to-peer or pay merchants online in under 10 seconds.

Can you reverse or dispute A2A payments?

When choosing which A2A payment methods to use, you must consider the terms for payment reversal and refund rights, as these vary. For instance, SEPA Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Debit both provide payer refunds, and ACH has its own returns process. Instant A2A payments such as FedNow and RTP are irrevocable.

Refer to the below table to see which payment schemes offer reversals or refund rights, as well as payment scheme settlement times (note: this is different to the merchant settlement time, which depends on PSP processing). 

Contact your account manager to find out how to easily add new payment methods to your existing Checkout.com integration, and for more information on merchant settlement windows.

Benefits of A2A payments

Account-to-account payments are often favored for their speed, high transaction amount limits, cost-efficiency, security and reliability over other payment types. They’re helpful for cashflow predictability, as recurring payments can be scheduled – meaning funds come through automatically, rather than relying on customer action.‍

Reduced transaction costs‍

A main reason for using A2A payments is to save on payment processing costs, particularly on large transfer amounts such as paying salaries, settling large invoices (such as software subscriptions, insurance premiums or legal fees), purchasing property, and the like. ‍

Real-time settlements‍

A2A payments can be faster than other payment types, even providing instant availability of funds, such as Same Day ACH. Faster settlement provides greater certainty over fund availability, empowering stronger cash flow management. ‍

Increased conversion ‍

Depending on the market, your customer base may prefer to use A2A payment methods such as PayNow in Singapore, which allows payment with a quick QR code scan. It’s important to offer the most popular and trusted local payment methods in order to boost conversion and successfully expand your business in new regions.‍

Lifecycle management benefits‍

Payment cards such as debit and credit cards expire every few years, whereas bank account numbers don’t. For card processing, merchants need to use workarounds such as account updaters or credential tokenization. By contrast, A2A payments transfer funds directly between bank accounts, meaning payments are less likely to fail due to expired credentials – a common cause of involuntary customer churn for ongoing services and subscriptions.‍

Reduced payment fraud exposure for the merchant‍

For certain A2A payments, such as Pay by Bank payment methods, the customer authenticates from their device and the bank confirms the validity of the transfer. That customer confirmation means the merchant is less likely to be liable for a claim of third-party payment fraud such as unauthorized use of credentials. Without the option of requesting a chargeback, the customer is generally unable to carry out friendly fraud. It should be noted this does not apply to Direct Debits, which consumers can easily contest and claim a refund on.

Drawbacks of A2A payments

Although they can be quick and cost-effective, there are trade-offs that mean account-to-account payments are not always the best option. You should consider the use case, market conditions, competitor landscape, compliance requirements, and regional preferences before deciding to adopt.

Difficult to dispute and reverse

‍As mentioned, it’s important that payers and payees share a very high level of trust, as many A2A payments are not easily reversed or returned in the event of a dispute. Customers may feel reluctant to pay a business directly via their bank account due to a lack of protections compared with credit card payments, which can affect conversion. 

To reduce the risk of customer complaints and operational difficulties over A2A payment refund requests, ensure you explicitly inform the customer of the relevant payment agreement, and provide information on how to cancel future payments, if needed.

‍Auto-retry may not be available‍

It may be difficult for a merchant to auto-retry an A2A payment that fails due to lack of funds, as the customer may need to authorize the payment again. By contrast, with merchant-initiated transactions on credit cards, merchants could use smart dunning to retry soft declines at a time when the customer is likely to have funds available. ‍

Greater exposure to authorized push-payment fraud

‍While there is a strong level of reliability in C2B transactions from the merchant’s point of view – because the customer authenticates payments securely using their device – the consumer is more exposed to social engineering, impersonation and deception underpinning authorized push-payment fraud. This is a direct result of the fact that A2A payments are generally not reversible: once the payee confirms fund transfer, it is often final. This can cause problems in the merchant-customer relationship if a customer believes they have sent payment to the business, but were actually tricked into sending funds to a scammer.‍

Customer trust and preference‍

Depending on the market, your business model, and how well-known your brand is, customers can be less familiar with certain A2A payment methods, and feel nervous about consenting to the terms and conditions. This can impact your conversion if you don’t have a good mix of payment methods for customers to choose between.‍

Fragmented market access‍

Many A2A schemes are domestic and may require merchants to maintain a local legal entity, bank account or approved payment-provider relationship. These requirements can increase onboarding, treasury and compliance complexity when entering multiple markets. However, requirements vary by scheme and provider, and some international PSPs such as Checkout.com enable cross-border merchants to offer local A2A payment methods, such as iDEAL and Przelewy24 through its collecting model.

Accept account-to-account payments with Checkout.com

Checkout.com enables merchants to accept bank-to-bank payment methods such as ACH Direct Debit, Bacs and PayNow through a single interface, helping reduce payment costs, provide faster confirmation and avoid card-expiry-related failures. You’ll benefit from strong payment performance while keeping your indemnity claims under control. Even better, you can automate compliance and payment method display using Flow, which shows your customers their preferred local payment methods in one clean, customizable interface. 

Partnering with Checkout.com means you can offer convenient A2A payment options without taking on undue legal and regulatory complexity. We take care to apply all scheme rules, as necessary, so you don’t have to worry about that either. That means you can scale your business and expand into new markets quickly – without needing to hire translators, open a new corporate branch, and hire a dedicated consultancy. 

Through Checkout.com, you can accept card payments, A2A, and even more payment methods with one provider, reducing the need for multiple contracts and dispersed funds management. Because minimum billing applies across your total processing volume and payment types share the same API, you significantly lower the financial and technical risk of adopting new ways to pay.

Talk to our sales team for more information on how Checkout.com can help your business improve efficiency, boost revenue and reduce compliance overhead.