Variable Recurring Payments roll out beyond pilot in 2026
Open Banking's 'VRP' technology is moving beyond sweeping into commercial use, opening the door to a direct-debit alternative for subscriptions.
By Money Guide editorial team
Published:
Variable Recurring Payments — a type of Open Banking authorisation that lets a trusted third party take payments from your account under agreed limits — are moving into commercial use this year after several years of pilots.
The technology offers a potential alternative to direct debits and card-on-file payments for subscription services, with more granular consumer control: you set the cap, the frequency and the duration, and can revoke at any time from your banking app.
Use cases being trialled include charity giving, utility bills and tax payments to HMRC. Several account-to-account fintechs are pitching VRP-based checkout to retailers as a lower-cost alternative to card payments.
For consumers, the practical implications will depend on how widely banks and merchants adopt it. The same legal protections (e.g. the right to recall an unauthorised payment) apply as for any Open Banking transaction.