Yaspa Review
6.4/10Pay-by-bank with an identity engine inside the deposit: FCA-regulated A2A for iGaming, with affordability, AML, and vulnerability signals in under 10 seconds.
Our read
- Identity runs inside the payment: affordability, AML risk, and financial-vulnerability signals return in under 10 seconds during the deposit.
- Guaranteed ACH deposits and RTP instant payouts have shipped in the US since H2 2025, with gambling-specialist Discerning Capital leading the funding behind the push.
- Gambling-first by design: a Safer Gambling platform with an Innovate UK grant (2024), G2E and SBC circuit presence, and a 2025-2026 award run including SBC Awards Europe Best Payment Solution (May 2026).
- FCA-authorized payment institution since 2019, in the first open-banking PI cohort, founded by James Neville, the former CTO of Worldpay and Just Eat.
- Reachable without a direct build through PaymentIQ, where it has been listed since May 2022, and Paysecure's 500-connection orchestration hub since April 2026.
- Pricing is on request, and per-market bank coverage comes through sales.
- The US registration stops at an NMLS ID, with no state money-transmitter or gaming vendor approvals under it.
- The client base is mid-tier: Playbook Engineering, Casino Lugano, Soft2Bet, White Hat Gaming, and Delasport, with the Novibet partnership dating to the Citizen era before October 2023.
Mid-size UK and European licensed operators, platform-based brands, and land-based casinos that want instant A2A deposits and payouts with affordability and Safer Gambling signals built into the flow itself.
Operators needing card acquiring, LatAm or APAC rails, or live crypto, tier-1 brands that require proven scale references, and US-regulated buyers who need a state licensing footprint on day one.
Markets & licensing
Yaspa Limited has been an FCA-authorized payment institution since 2019, reference 826720, in the first open-banking PI cohort. Coverage runs across the UK and 18 further European markets.
Guaranteed ACH deposits and RTP instant payouts have shipped since H2 2025, sold from an Atlanta operation by a CRO with a Cybersource, Visa, and Paysafe background, with a G2E Las Vegas booth in October 2025. US contracts sit with Yaspa Inc., a Delaware entity registered under NMLS ID 2771164. The targeted verticals are online gaming, skill-based gaming, DFS, and prediction markets.
UK bank coverage runs from Monzo and Revolut to Barclays and HSBC, and the omnichannel flows extend to land-based floors.
- UK (FCA) payment institutionUnited Kingdom
- Open-banking payment services, held by Yaspa Limited · FRN 826720 · authorized August 5, 2019
- US NMLS registrationUnited States
- Held by Yaspa Inc. (Delaware) · NMLS ID 2771164
Licensing tier: Mid-tier. One FCA payment institution permission in the UK, with no EU institution of its own.
The US entry covers live products rather than a licensed state footprint.
Yaspa targets licensed, regulated operators.
Methods & rails
What you can reach
A2A rails
Payout rails
Processing features
Integrations & engineering
One contract and one API instead of a separate deal per studio, feed, or PSP. Here's what connects, how fast, and on what stack.
One integration covers payments and identity together: the API initiates pay-by-bank transactions and returns account-ownership, affordability, AML-risk, and vulnerability signals from the same consented bank-data session, with hosted flows available for faster starts. Rails are selected per market, meaning UK Faster Payments at home, SEPA and SEPA Instant across the 18 European markets, and Same-Day ACH, RTP, and FedNow in the US. Virtual accounts handle segregation and reconciliation, and the closed loop ties payouts to the verified deposit account. Operators already running PaymentIQ or Paysecure can switch Yaspa on inside their existing cashier instead of integrating directly.
Products & tools
Six products hang off one A2A core: Intelligent Payments carries the identity signals, Instant Payments and Instant Payouts move the money, Account Verification and Virtual Accounts handle ownership and reconciliation, and Guaranteed Payments takes the same stack to US ACH.
Intelligent Payments
The flagship: a pay-by-bank transaction and an AI-driven customer assessment in a single flow, returning affordability, AML risk, and financial-vulnerability signals in under 10 seconds, before funds enter play.
- Affordability, AML risk, and vulnerability assessment inside the deposit flow, in under 10 seconds
- Signals derive from consented real-time bank data instead of credit-bureau lookups
- Safer Gambling platform backed by an Innovate UK grant (2024)
Instant Payments & Instant Payouts
The money movement layer: pay-by-bank deposits settling in real time and instant player payouts over UK Faster Payments, SEPA Instant, and US RTP, running in a closed loop against the verified account.
- Real-time A2A deposits settling straight into the merchant account
- Instant payouts for winnings, refunds, and cross-border
- Closed-loop flow: deposits come from the verified account and payouts return to it
- Rails: UK Faster Payments, SEPA and SEPA Instant, US Same-Day ACH, RTP, and FedNow
- Omnichannel flows for web, in-store, and the casino floor
Guaranteed Payments (US)
The US product: guaranteed deposits over Same-Day ACH from checking and savings accounts, with live balance checks and per-transaction risk analysis deciding approvals, one-time verification then single-click repeat deposits, and protection against ACH returns on approved transactions.
- Real-time balance check and risk analysis per transaction before approval
- One-time account verification, then single-click repeat deposits
- Near-100% deposit acceptance
- No interchange and no return fees
- Instant payouts over RTP alongside
Account Verification & Virtual Accounts
The supporting layer: bank-account ownership and customer verification in seconds, plus virtual IBANs issued on demand for segregation and reconciliation.
- Bank-account ownership verification in seconds
- Customer verification riding the bank's own authentication
- VIBANs on demand for per-brand or per-market reconciliation
- Feeds the closed-loop deposit and payout flow
The history
Longevity in this industry usually comes with a change of owner somewhere in it.
Yaspa started in London in 2017 as Citizen, founded by James Neville, previously CTO of both Worldpay and Just Eat, with Dr Toby Sucharov as technical co-founder. It joined the first cohort of open-banking providers authorized as FCA payment institutions in 2019, took an early Metavallon round in 2018 and SGH Capital money in 2020, and renamed to Yaspa in October 2023 after concluding the Citizen name was commercially and SEO unworkable. A $12M round led by gambling-specialist Discerning Capital followed in July 2025, along with an Atlanta operation, an NMLS registration, and Guaranteed ACH shipping in H2 2025, while headcount grew from 15 to about 70 in 18 months.
Brands & clients on the platform
Corporate
Leadership
Milestones
- 2017
Founded in London as Citizen by James Neville (ex-Worldpay and Just Eat CTO) and Dr Toby Sucharov.
- 2019
Authorized by the FCA as a payment institution, FRN 826720, among the first open-banking PIs.
- 2022
Goes live on PaymentIQ (May) and wins at the Open Banking Expo Awards, still under the Citizen name.
- 2023
Rebrands to Yaspa on October 26, a name built from 'pay' and 'ASAP', and expands across Europe.
- 2024
Wins an Innovate UK grant for its Safer Gambling platform.
- 2025
Raises $12M led by Discerning Capital (July 2), opens in Atlanta, registers NMLS ID 2771164, ships Guaranteed ACH, and shows at G2E Las Vegas (October, booth 4011).
- 2026
Paysecure partnership (April 2), Best Payment Solution at SBC Awards Europe (May 6), and an EGR B2B double win for AI Solutions Provider and Safer Gambling Supplier (June 3).
Where they're pushing next
- US (Guaranteed ACH deposits and RTP payouts shipping from Atlanta)
- Netherlands (with a Dutch-language site of its own)
- Land-based and omnichannel gambling (web, in-store, and casino-floor flows)
Awards & recognition
Longevity and ownership
Switching vendors is expensive, which makes the company's staying power part of the purchase. What the contract says about your data decides how expensive an exit gets.
Yaspa vs alternatives
Most buyers in this market shortlist three or four vendors long before they take a single sales call.
| Attribute | Yaspa | Trustly | Brite Payments | Volt |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2017 | 2008 | 2019 | 2019 |
| Team | 70+ | 900+ | 160+ | 202+ |
| US market | Available | Available | Restricted | Restricted |
| Pricing | On request | On request | On request | On request |
| Methods | — | 1+ | 1+ | — |
| Currencies | — | 13+ | — | — |
| EMI / PI licenses | UK | Sweden, UK | Sweden | UK, Poland |
| Settlement | Real-time A2A settlement straight into the merchant account | — | — | Instant over domestic instant rails, with balances visible in Volt Accounts since February 2026 |
| Instant payouts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Settlement & commercials
Yaspa prices per deal, so exact figures land in the contract rather than on a public rate card.
The US Guaranteed ACH fee structure carries no interchange and no return fees.
The deal
Money movement
Onboarding path
- 1Contact sales
- 2Contract with Yaspa Limited for the UK and Europe, or with Yaspa Inc. for the US
- 3Map your markets against the 19-country support-portal list and request per-market bank coverage
- 4Integrate the REST API with hosted flows, or enable Yaspa inside PaymentIQ or Paysecure if you already run either cashier
- 5Configure the identity layer: account verification, affordability, AML-risk, and vulnerability thresholds to match your license's requirements
- 6Go live with instant payouts over FPS, SEPA Instant, or RTP, plus Guaranteed ACH deposits for US players
Support & account management
You can't demo service before you sign, so what a vendor puts in writing is the only floor you can hold it to.