Investment platform AJ Bell has tapped Lloyds Bank for its open banking payment solution FundBy Bank.

AJ Bell is the first client in the wealth management sector to utilise FundBy Bank and the solution will offer its users an alternative to funding transactions through card payments or through online banking.

FundBy Bank was developed with software vendor Bottomline and is designed to speed up the receipt of funds and simplify reconciliation.

The payments solution utilises biometric authentication, doing away with the need to enter personal details to make a payment.

FundBy Bank allows users to determine how much they want to transfer on the AJ Bell website or app and directs them to their online bank account before transferring funds via Faster Payments, arriving in their AJ Bell account “almost instantly”.

Ross Bacchus, payment sales Lloyds Bank commercial banking, says the bank’s suite of APIs are “making a real difference” by helping to streamline payment processes.

“Leveraging open banking, through Lloyds Bank FundBy Bank, gives AJ Bell greater flexibility through enhanced payment initiation across their product range,” Bacchus adds.

AJ Bell’s director of strategy, Tim Huckle, says: “Implementing the FundBy system will allow customers to top-up their ISAs and investment accounts securely from their bank account in just a few clicks.”