Can a PayFac offer VRPs to merchants in the EU today?

Only to a limited extent. The SEPA Payment Account Access scheme lays groundwork for dynamic recurring payments, but adoption remains limited. The UK is rolling out commercial VRPs in waves, and equivalents already run elsewhere: Pix Automático in Brazil, PayTo in Australia and UPI AutoPay in India. The offer is built market by market.

Where VRP stands

In the UK, commercial VRPs are rolling out in waves led by the open banking regulator, starting with utilities, government and financial services. In the EU, the SEPA Payment Account Access scheme creates the framework for dynamic recurring payments, but bank adoption and commercial terms are still limited. Equivalents already run elsewhere: Pix Automático in Brazil, PayTo in Australia, UPI AutoPay in India.

Building the offer market by market

• Connect a VRP or recurring A2A provider where the scheme is live.
• Enable it per merchant, for the use cases the scheme allows.
• Keep cards and direct debits as the default where VRP is not yet available.

What to do now

Prepare the billing side so that VRP can be added as a payment method without changing schedules, offers or retries. A subscription engine that separates the billing plan from the payment instrument will take a VRP mandate as it takes a card token. The commercial case will come first in the UK and in markets with live equivalents; EU merchants will follow as banks and the SPAA scheme mature. PayFacs that build the plumbing now avoid a second project later.