Glossary
Payment initiation service (PIS)
A payment initiation service, PIS, is the regulated service of starting a transfer from a payer's bank account at the payer's request, performed by a licensed payment initiation service provider through the bank's Open Banking interface. The payer authenticates at their bank, the provider receives confirmation that the transfer was initiated, and the merchant is told to expect the money; the provider never holds the funds, which travel from the payer's bank to the merchant's account.
Initiated is not settled
The bank confirms that the payment was accepted for execution; the money arrives by the rails behind it: in seconds on an instant scheme, by the next business day on an ordinary transfer. A merchant that releases goods on “initiated” takes a small risk; a platform keeps the two states apart and marks the payment paid when the provider confirms settlement or the funds are reconciled.
The licence
In the EU and the UK a payment initiation provider needs authorisation as a payment institution with the service in its scope, professional indemnity insurance and registration with the national authority; the bank must accept its requests. Software that renders the bank list and calls the provider is not initiating payments; the provider is.
On the platform
Tranzify integrates licensed payment initiation providers as terminals from the catalogue and shows the method on the checkout under the client’s brand; the initiation, the bank connection and the licence are the provider’s, and the status model records initiated, confirmed and settled separately.
Updated: 2026-11-08