Trustly, Brite, Zimpler and Trumo: a technology comparison

Scope and method

This guide examines four account-to-account payment solutions visible in the Nordics and Finland: Trustly, Brite, Zimpler and Trumo. The review is strictly limited to payment technology: architecture, authentication flow, payment rails and integration design.

The guide does not assess the services' pricing, contractual terms or suitability for any particular industry or purpose, and it is not a recommendation. Company information is based on the public sources listed in the bibliography. Where information comes from a profile compiled by a third party rather than from the company's own or an authority's source, this is stated separately. Brevixoo has no commercial relationship with any of the companies mentioned.

Shared architecture: account to account

All four solutions belong to the group of so-called account-to-account (A2A) or pay by bank payments. In these, the payment does not pass through a card network; instead, funds move from the payer's bank account as a credit transfer. The general structure is as follows:

1. Payment initiation. The merchant creates a payment via the provider's API and receives a session or redirect URL in response.
2. Bank selection. The payer selects their bank in the provider's user interface.
3. Strong authentication. The payer authenticates with their bank's authentication method, for example a mobile app.
4. Payment approval. The payer approves the amount and the payee in their bank.
5. Execution. The bank executes the credit transfer, increasingly as a SEPA instant transfer in the euro area.
6. Notification. The provider notifies the merchant of the payment status, typically via a webhook notification.

In modern A2A payments, the payer authenticates directly with their own bank’s authentication method, which can make the payment journey short and smooth without entering separate card details.

Implementations differ in how the provider connects to banks (PSD2 interfaces, its own bank connections or a combination of both), how funds flow (directly to the merchant or via the provider's client funds account) and which additional features, such as payouts or account ownership verification, are offered.

Trustly

Background. Trustly was founded in Stockholm in 2008, originally under the name Glue Finance. The company is a payment institution supervised in the EU and EEA by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen) and in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority. In addition to Europe, Trustly operates in the United States, among other markets.

Technology. Trustly offers open banking-based payment solutions in which the customer pays directly from their bank account as an alternative to card payments. The solution uses the banks' authentication methods to approve the payment. The company is one of the longest-standing players in the region, and its history dates back to before the PSD2 interface obligations.

From an integration perspective, a notable feature is broad bank coverage across several countries, which is a key advantage of the aggregator model. The company itself states that its network includes thousands of banks; this figure is the company's own claim.

Brite

Background. Brite (Brite Payments) was founded in Stockholm in 2019. In October 2023, the company announced that it had raised USD 60 million in funding to expand instant payments in Europe.

Technology. Brite describes its offering as open banking-based instant payments and payouts in which funds move immediately. Bidirectionality, meaning both receiving payments and making payouts through the same integration, is a technically significant feature, because refunds and payouts can be handled in the same status model as payments.

From an integration perspective, it is worth establishing which instant payment rail payouts use in each country and how refunds are matched to the original payment.

Zimpler

Background. Zimpler is a Swedish payment company founded in 2012 that holds a licence in Sweden. The UK-based TrueLayer announced in October 2025 that it had agreed to acquire Zimpler, and in March 2026 that it had completed the transaction following approval by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. Zimpler has been reported to continue operating as usual while integration proceeds.

Technology. Zimpler offers account-to-account payments in the Nordics, including Sweden and Finland. The acquisition announcement specifically mentioned Zimpler's integration with the Swedish Swish payment rail. As part of TrueLayer, Zimpler's Nordic network is being connected to a broader European pay by bank network.

From an integration perspective, the transaction is material information: the roadmap for APIs, bank coverage and products may change following the change of ownership. Anyone planning an integration should check the current technical documentation and any migration timetables.

Trumo

Background. Trumo is operated by the Finnish company Trumo Finance Oy. The supervisory register of Latvijas Banka lists the company as an EEA payment institution providing services in Latvia on the basis of the freedom to provide services. According to a third-party provider profile, the company is supervised by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanssivalvonta) and its market area covers Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Technology. According to the same profile, Trumo offers open banking-based account-to-account payments, instant payments and payouts, a combined authentication and payment flow, and a pay by bank solution called Trumo Checkout, which settles via SEPA instant transfer. Being based on SEPA Instant means that funds can arrive within seconds, even outside banking hours.

From an integration perspective, a combined authentication and payment flow requires careful privacy design: it must be defined precisely which identity data the merchant receives, what it is used for and how long it is retained. See also the guide Financial data privacy in open banking.

Comparison table

The table contains only information that can be verified from public sources. A dash means that the information is not available in the sources of this guide.

* Information based on a third-party provider profile. Check current information with the company or in the register of the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority.

Evaluation criteria for integration

The technical suitability of an account-to-account payment solution can be assessed against the following criteria, regardless of the provider in question:

1. Bank coverage in the target markets and the share of the customer base whose banks are supported.
2. Authentication models: redirect, decoupled authentication and app-to-app transitions on mobile.
3. Payment rails: whether payments are executed as instant transfers or standard credit transfers, and whether this varies by bank.
4. Status model and notifications: clear payment statuses, signed webhooks, retry logic and a status query API.
5. Refunds and payouts: whether partial refunds are supported, how a refund is matched and how quickly funds arrive.
6. Reconciliation: report format, settlement schedule and preservation of reference data.
7. Availability: published service levels, status pages and incident communication.
8. Data protection: controller and processor roles, data minimisation and retention periods.
9. Regulatory readiness: consideration of verification of payee and preparation for the Payment Services Regulation (PSR).

Conclusions

The four solutions reviewed share the same basic architecture: the payer authenticates with their own bank and approves the credit transfer, and the provider takes care of the bank connections and of passing the status to the merchant. Differences arise from how bank connections are implemented, market areas, support for payouts and how the solution makes use of SEPA instant transfers.

The market is in flux. Corporate transactions, such as Zimpler's move to TrueLayer, together with the EU Instant Payments Regulation and the forthcoming Payment Services Regulation, are shaping which features can be expected from account-to-account payments. The most technically sustainable approach is to build the payment architecture so that any single provider can be replaced: a unified internal status model, provider-specific adapter layers and careful reconciliation.

Sources and further reading

1. Trustly – Wikipedia (company background and supervision)
2. Brite: About
3. TrueLayer: TrueLayer completes acquisition of Zimpler (3 March 2026)
4. Financial IT: TrueLayer to Acquire Zimpler (21 October 2025)
5. Latvijas Banka: Trumo Finance Oy, EEA service providers
6. PaymentProviders.io: Trumo (provider profile)