National Australia Bank has acquired Banked, a London-founded payments technology company focused on account-to-account transactions, in a deal designed to strengthen the bank’s digital payments capabilities for business customers. The acquisition, announced on 14 May 2026, brings Banked’s Pay by Bank and payments orchestration platform under NAB ownership for an undisclosed sum. The move reflects growing demand for faster, lower-cost payment options that can sit alongside cards, digital wallets and other established checkout methods.
Strategic Rationale
Banked’s platform enables consumers to pay merchants directly from their bank accounts, reducing reliance on credit and debit card rails. For businesses, this can mean quicker access to funds, lower payment acceptance costs and a more streamlined reconciliation and settlement process. NAB said the acquisition supports its broader strategy to expand real-time and account-to-account payment services for merchants.
NAB was already familiar with Banked’s technology before the transaction, having used the platform for business customers since 2024. The bank had also backed the company through NAB Ventures, which invested in Banked across funding rounds in 2022, 2023 and 2024. That existing relationship positioned the acquisition as a continuation of a commercial and investment partnership rather than a sudden strategic shift.
Banked’s Role in NAB’s Payments Push
Founded in 2018, Banked has developed a global Pay by Bank platform aimed at merchants, developers and payment providers. The company’s technology is designed to support secure, real-time and low-cost payments, while offering a checkout experience that feels familiar to online shoppers. Its operations have included offices in London, Palo Alto and Vilnius, reflecting ambitions beyond its original UK base.
NAB Group Executive for Transformation Shane Conway said Pay by Bank is part of a wider change in Australia’s payments market. He framed the technology as a way to deliver faster, easier and more reliable payment experiences while helping merchants manage checkout, reconciliation and settlement in one place. According to NAB, integrating Banked’s product and engineering capability with the bank’s scale should make digital payments simpler for more Australian businesses.
Market Context
The acquisition comes as banks and fintechs continue to invest in alternatives to card-based online payments. Account-to-account payment systems have gained attention because they can move funds directly between bank accounts, often with lower costs and faster settlement than traditional card networks. For merchants operating on tight margins, those benefits can be commercially significant if adoption grows.
Media reports noted that Banked had raised more than $50 million and attracted backing from investors including Bank of America, Insight Partners and Citi. Tech.eu also reported that Banked is expected to focus more heavily on Australia following the acquisition, with sources saying the company would exit the UK and US markets. That shift would make strategic sense if NAB’s priority is to scale the platform within its domestic business banking network.
Business Impact
For NAB, the deal adds specialist fintech capability at a time when payment infrastructure is becoming a competitive differentiator for banks serving merchants. Rather than building every component internally, the bank is absorbing a platform it already uses and understands. This could help speed up product development while giving Banked access to NAB’s customer base, infrastructure and regulatory environment.
Banked CEO and co-founder Brad Goodall said NAB’s backing would allow the platform to reach more customers. His comments pointed to the work Banked’s team has done to build technology for modern merchant and developer needs. In the immediate term, Banked’s group entities will operate as wholly owned subsidiaries of NAB before being integrated into the bank’s technology environment over the coming months.
NAB’s acquisition of Banked highlights the growing importance of real-time, account-to-account payments in business banking. The transaction gives NAB deeper control over a payments platform it had already supported as both investor and customer. If successfully integrated, Banked could help NAB offer merchants a faster, cheaper and more unified way to accept and manage digital payments.