Taking Pay by Bank product from concept to launch
A structured go to market model turned Pay by Bank from a stalled idea into a governed, measurable path from design to pilot to scalable launch.
Starting point
Account-to-account Pay by Bank was an important strategic bet for this global fintech enterprise. Pay by Bank promised lower cost of acceptance and stronger bank grade security. The product team had defined the core capability, but the go-to-market motion was still unclear.
Product, engineering and sales teams were not aligned on how to position Pay by Bank alongside cards, which clients were right for early pilots, or how to talk through economics, refunds, reconciliation and risk with confidence. There was no shared view on what a good pilot looked like, how to measure attach rate, or which KPIs should determine when the offer could move from limited availability to general availability.
Leadership needed more than a feature. They needed a coherent system that linked design partners, channels, economics and reporting into one story.
Approach
A structured go-to-market model that identified the right metrics and provided clear direction was needed. The work was led by Bhuvan Maingi, then director of go-to-market strategy and now at Strathen Group.
The first step was to define the go-to-market architecture. Buyer personas were mapped across product, payments or treasury, finance and risk for typical enterprise clients. For each, the team clarified why Pay by Bank mattered: lower cost of acceptance in basis points, stronger authentication through the banking app, potential for better cash flow and lower dispute overhead.
Alongside the benefits, a set of common objections was documented. Concerns about refunds and reconciliation flows. Questions about customer experience when redirecting to bank authentication, and perceived risk of lower conversion. Each objection was paired with a meaningful response.
A design partner framework gave structure to where and how Pay by Bank would be proven out. Selection criteria focused on vertical fit, control over checkout, technical readiness and operational capacity to support pilots. Prospects were moved through a simple pipeline from interest to signed charter to live pilot. Each pilot had clear success criteria, including attach rate, payment success, abandonment at bank handoff, refund timing and impact on cost of acceptance. Attach rate was defined plainly as the percentage of eligible checkout volume where customers chose Pay by Bank when it was offered.
Channel strategy was also clarified in parallel. One path ran through direct sales to large enterprise merchants. The other used the company’s banking platform channel, where Pay by Bank could be offered as an additional tender type to existing bank clients. Qualification rules, handoffs and pricing and packaging patterns were defined for each route.
To support these motions, seller enablement assets were built in a modular way. A Pay by Bank module was added to the standard executive pitch deck, including a simple product explainer, economic model, and risk and operations checklist. A discovery guide helped sellers ask the right questions about current tender mix, dispute levels and appetite for new payment methods. Commercial math templates walked through how to calculate net value: card cost in basis points minus Pay by Bank cost in basis points, multiplied by the volume that could realistically shift, then adjusted for any change in conversion. Competitive talk tracks framed Pay by Bank alongside, not against, existing card rails.
Treating Pay by Bank as a system of economics, partners and pilots created a disciplined path from idea to scale.
Outcome
The enterprise moved from an exciting capability to a structured go-to-market program for Pay by Bank. Engineers, sellers and channel partners had a clearer narrative for when and how to introduce an account-to-account method alongside cards, grounded in merchant economics rather than generic enthusiasm for open banking.
Design partners were recruited into a simple, governed program with written charters, success metrics and dedicated reporting. This made it easier for product, risk and commercial leaders to judge whether Pay by Bank was working in practice and to decide when to expand. It supported more confident decisions about where to prioritize Pay by Bank, how to tune pricing and when to move from limited availability to broader general availability.
For clients, the result was a more credible A2A option that aimed to lower cost of acceptance while protecting conversion and operational stability.
New payment methods scale best when economics, pilot design and seller narratives are aligned from the start.
This work now shapes how Strathen Group helps fintech and payments clients stand up new payment methods. We focus on a clear go-to-market architecture, a disciplined design partner framework and simple economic models that give leaders confidence to scale.
