New financial evaluation from open banking platform Tink and the Centre for Economics and Enterprise Analysis (Cebr) has discovered that UK small and medium-sized enterprises misplaced an estimated £6.15billion in direct gross sales final 12 months on account of client mistrust of guide financial institution transfers.
The report highlights a widespread ‘concern of fraud’ that can be driving a possible £31.4billion in oblique losses from decreased buyer loyalty and repeat enterprise.
The findings, primarily based on surveys of two,000 customers and 500 SME leaders, reveal a major disconnect between enterprise practices and buyer expectations. Whereas 87 per cent of SMEs that settle for guide financial institution transfers nonetheless depend on them as an everyday fee methodology, 41 per cent of customers say they’d abandon a purchase order if requested to pay this manner.
This mistrust is widespread, with 57 per cent of consumers stating they don’t belief companies that request guide transfers, and 67 per cent worrying particularly about being scammed into paying a fraudster.
A 2025 report from UK Finance recorded that £450 million was misplaced to authorised push fee (APP) fraud in 2024, against the law the place victims are tricked into sending cash on to a felony’s account. This backdrop of rising fraud is making customers more and more cautious on the checkout, particularly when fee strategies lack built-in safety.
Customers voting with their wallets
The analysis reveals that belief is a significant component in a client’s determination to finish a purchase order. The concern of being scammed is not only a statistic; it interprets into real-world deserted gross sales and broken enterprise reputations.
One client, Peter Richards, shared {that a} earlier scamming incident has made him extraordinarily cautious of guide transfers. When a letting agent just lately requested for a fee to an account the place the identify didn’t match the enterprise, he felt compelled to go to their bodily workplace to confirm the request. “In the event that they didn’t have a bodily retailer presence, I wouldn’t have paid,” he acknowledged.
This sentiment is shared by others who really feel susceptible. Anne Vivian-Smith, one other client, defined her determination to cancel hiring a gardener who requested fee through a guide financial institution switch despatched over textual content message. “I had no technique to double-check if the account was respectable, and I didn’t wish to put myself in a susceptible place,” she stated. “In the long run, I made a decision to not go forward together with his companies. It wasn’t well worth the stress or the danger.”
These experiences again the report’s discovering that the fee choices provided by a enterprise closely affect buying selections for 81 per cent of customers. Moreover, two-thirds of consumers don’t belief companies that fail to make use of a recognised third-party fee supplier, indicating that safety and selection are actually baseline expectations.
The case for safe funds
With open banking adoption within the UK reaching 15 million customers, up from 10 million a 12 months in the past, the report factors in the direction of trendy fee strategies like Pay by Financial institution as a safe various that may assist SMEs restore belief and defend income.
Ian Morrin, head of funds at Tink, commented: “Guide financial institution transfers are sometimes not match for goal and are holding the UK economic system again. These strategies can create friction, gas fraud fears, and in the end erode buyer belief. In right now’s panorama, the place belief and selection are non-negotiable at checkout, companies can’t afford to depend on outdated fee strategies that value them each gross sales and loyalty.”
He additionally added: “Safe, recognised fee strategies, whether or not that’s Pay by Financial institution, digital wallets or card funds, give prospects the boldness to finish purchases whereas serving to companies enhance conversion, cut back fraud danger, and meet rising expectations round fee expertise.”
Tink, as a part of Visa A2A, is working to carry higher protections to Pay by Financial institution funds, aiming to offer a stage of safety sometimes related to card transactions.
