Klarna launches voluntary gambling blocks for open-bank payments
Sofort, a payments solution subsidiary of Klarna, has developed the UK’s first open-banking voluntary gambling block, aiming to allow customers to control their betting habits through digital payments.
The technology, first developed by Monzo and TrueLayer for card-based payments, enables customers struggling with problem gambling to block payments to betting operators through their bank.
While the block is in place, a customer cannot deposit money into a betting account and must request a 48-hour cooling-off period before it is lifted.
So far, 400,000 Monzo customers have signed up to the gambling block, prompting the payments company to extend its software to open-bank, or cardless, payments.
In doing so, Klarna, which has 146 million global users, is able to launch voluntary gambling blocks on Sofort’s platform, becoming the first UK payment provider to do so.
Head of Klarna UK Alex Marsh commented: “We’re calling on banks and other open banking infrastructure providers to make this relatively small update, which could help protect hundreds of thousands of UK consumers.
“Open banking has huge potential to increase competition and reduce costs and as adoption grows the industry must move quickly to make changes which can further improve the lives of UK consumers.”
Sofort’s technology is used by 75,000 merchants across Europe, some of which are gambling operators.
In connection with parent company Klarna, these merchants have access to approximately 15,000 banks and money lenders.
Importantly for the gambling block technology to work, only immediate payments are allowed to betting sites, as opposed to buy now, pay later or other credit schemes.
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