Irish airline Ryanair has announced the launch of Pay by Bank App on its website.

Pay by Bank is an Open Banking-driven online payment option which allows consumers to pay with an “account-to-account” method, rather than paying via a debit or credit card.

Ryanair customers are now able to use the payment method when booking flights.

The airline has teamed up with Open Banking platform TrueLayer to facilitate the move.

TrueLayer has also recently gone live with its platform on Just Eat Takeaway, which has recorded half a million sales via the payment method since its launch in October, as well as Lastminute.com.

Ryanair customers can now select the Pay by Bank App option at checkout and choose their bank of choice.

They will then be requested to use faceID, fingerprint or a password to authorise their payment via their banking app.

Group treasurer at the airline John Norton shared on LinkedIn that the rollout was led by the company's digital and IT innovation hub Ryanair Labs, as well as team members focused on payments analysis, fraud and card payments, and distribution partnerships.

"We are excited to launch the roll out of our Pay by Bank payment solution with our partners Truelayer," he wrote on the platform. "The journey continues!"

Founder at Truelayer Francesco Simoneschi described the partnership with Europe's largest airline has a "major milestone" for Pay by Bank in the e-commerce space, adding that it brings the industry a step closer to it becoming an ubiquitous payment method.

The move comes after the government last month published its National Payments Vision (NPV), a strategic plan that aims to boost the UK payments industry.

As part of the Vision, its ambition is that seamless account-to-account payments are developed as an "ubiquitous payment method".

Top priorities include strengthening coordination to address “congestion” in the regulatory landscape, supporting the development of Open Banking, and ensuring high standards of consumer protection so that individuals and businesses can make payments efficiently and safely.

Earlier this year, Open Banking Limited (OBL) announced that over 10 million consumers and small businesses are using Open Banking technology in the UK.

The implementation agency estimates that the Open Banking ecosystem is already worth over £4 billion to the UK economy, which it says has attracted investment and facilitated the creation of almost 5000 skilled digital jobs across the country.

OBL said that the growth of Open Banking, which first launched in 2018, has been driven by competition, suggesting that when one company focuses on rolling out the model their direct rivals tend to follow suit.

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