UK Businesses Face Payment Visibility Crisis Despite Tech Adoption, Finexer Research Reveals

UK businesses are grappling with significant payment visibility gaps despite high adoption of digital financial tools, according to new research from Finexer. With 42% of firms reporting delays in confirming incoming funds, the findings highlight a critical friction point for fintech providers aiming to streamline B2B workflows through integrated Open Banking solutions.

What was announced

Finexer has published a new report, ‘The Open Banking Data and Payments Automation Landscape’, which identifies a persistent disconnect between payment technology adoption and operational efficiency in the UK. The study found that 42% of UK businesses experienced a delay in confirming whether a customer or client payment had arrived during the past 12 months, making it the most common payment problem identified by the research.

The friction extends to outgoing funds, with 40% of businesses reporting that an approved payout—including supplier payments, refunds, claims, salary payments, and deposit returns—had been delayed. Operational overhead remains high due to system fragmentation; 39% of respondents noted that employees are required to trace, compare, or re-enter payment information across multiple systems manually.

While digital payment technology is widely used, the infrastructure is often siloed. Finexer’s research found that 62% of UK businesses already use Pay by Bank, 55% use account ownership verification, and 50% use bank data access. However, more than a third (38%) of businesses rely on three or more separate systems or providers to manage their banking and payment workflows. The findings suggest this fragmentation forces finance teams to bridge gaps between incoming payments, payouts, and reconciliation, undermining the visibility benefits that Open Banking is designed to provide.

"If a business has to investigate whether a payment has arrived, something in the payment process isn’t working. Finance teams should be able to see when money arrives and know where an approved payment is in the process. Instead, too many are still checking different systems, tracing transactions and moving information between platforms just to build a clear picture of what has been paid and what hasn’t. That isn’t just an inconvenience, it creates more work for finance teams and makes something as fundamental as payment visibility unnecessarily difficult."

Ravi Ranjan, Co-Founder and CEO of Finexer

The companies involved

Finexer is an FCA-authorised Open Banking infrastructure platform specifically built for mid-market B2B platforms. The company provides tools that connect permissioned banking data and account-to-account payments directly into existing business software, aiming to give firms greater visibility over cash flow without requiring manual intervention. By bringing bank data, payment initiation, and verification together, Finexer seeks to reduce the reliance on disconnected systems that currently plagues finance departments.

The broader UK fintech and investment landscape supporting such infrastructure includes organisations like SFC Capital and the British Business Bank. SFC Capital is a prominent early-stage investment firm in the UK market. The British Business Bank, a government-owned development bank, plays a central role in the UK’s financial ecosystem by supporting smaller businesses' access to finance and backing specialist funds. While the British Business Bank operates independently of private infrastructure providers like Finexer, its influence is significant through various regional investment programmes and guarantee facilities designed to bridge finance gaps for firms across the country.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has extensively covered the activities of the British Business Bank as it supports the UK’s financial and technological infrastructure. Recent reports include the bank's £180m injection into the UK AI ecosystem via six specialist funds and its £3m commitment to TSP Ventures to bolster resource resilience. Additionally, FF News highlighted how British Business Bank regional funds have bridged critical finance gaps for 81% of backed firms. The bank also recently boosted the Shawbrook ENABLE Build facility to £350m to support UK housebuilders.

What this means

This research highlights a "sophistication paradox" in the UK B2B sector: businesses are adopting advanced tools like Pay by Bank, yet they are more burdened by manual reconciliation than ever. For the fintech industry, this indicates that the next phase of competition will not be won by those offering the fastest payment rails, but by those offering the best orchestration. The pressure is now on software providers to move beyond single-feature integrations. If platforms cannot provide a unified, real-time view of cash flow, they risk being replaced by all-in-one infrastructure solutions that eliminate the need for finance teams to manually "connect the dots" across fragmented systems.