Trustly and Episode Six Partner to Accelerate Adoption of Pay by Bank in the U.S

Collaboration enables retailers to adopt Pay by Bank through existing card rails, unlocking efficiency and reducing complexity

Austin, Sept. 9, 2025 – Episode Six, a leading global provider of enterprise-grade card issuing and ledger infrastructure, and Trustly, the global leader in Pay by Bank, today announced a partnership. Through this collaboration, Episode Six will provide the issuer processing technology for Trustly’s “card rail plugin integration,” enabling U.S. retail merchants to accept Pay by Bank directly through the card networks they already use, without the need for costly new integrations or operational changes.
 
The collaboration comes as demand for alternative payment options continues to rise in the U.S. While Pay by Bank has gained significant traction globally, adoption domestically has lagged. This solution lowers adoption barriers for U.S. merchants by reducing costs, accelerating settlement, and minimizing fraud - all while leveraging the familiarity of existing card rails they already use.

“Merchants don’t want complexity. They want faster, safer payments that simply work,” said Brian Muse-McKenney, Chief Revenue Officer at Episode Six. “By combining Trustly’s Pay by Bank leadership with Episode Six’s modern infrastructure, we’re showing how new payment experiences can scale on top of existing systems. It’s efficiency and speed without tradeoffs.”

Trustly selected Episode Six for its modern, cloud-native, and resilient platform, which offers the flexibility to support forward-looking use cases like Pay by Bank via card rails. For Episode Six, the partnership underscores the company’s ability to enable global leaders to launch next-generation payment models at scale.

“Together with Episode Six, we’re making it much easier for merchants to bring Pay by Bank to checkout,” said Craig McDonald, Chief Business Officer at Trustly. “Using the same card rails retailers rely on today means faster integration, quicker time to market, and lower costs by building on existing operations.”

By proving that alternative payments can scale seamlessly through existing rails, Trustly and Episode Six are setting a precedent for how innovation can be implemented efficiently and effectively — a model that can be replicated across the broader fintech ecosystem.

 

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