Pay by Bank in Grocery Retail: Ahold Delhaize USA and Fiserv Expand Cardless Checkout

Ahold Delhaize USA and Fiserv are widening their bank-to-bank payment pilot to reach more U.S. shoppers, extending direct-from-account checkout across the grocer’s digital storefronts.

Key Updates: Pay by Bank Pilot Scales Up

• Fiserv and Ahold Delhaize USA will broaden their bank payment pilot so more customers nationwide can access the option, the companies said.
• The feature debuted last year on the grocer’s websites and mobile apps for three banners—The Giant Company, Giant Food, and Stop & Shop—and is now being offered to a larger audience.
• Tens of thousands of shoppers have signed up for the pay by bank option.
• Customers can enroll and select their financial institution during setup.
• Customers authenticate through their bank experience to authorize payment.
• The option adds another cardless way to pay for digital grocery orders.

Industry Context: Real-Time Payment Momentum

Retailers across the U.S., including Walmart, are promoting cardless ways to pay to curb interchange and network costs tied to card payments, giving merchants another payment solution at checkout. Support is typically limited to eligible customers at participating banks and credit unions connected to the payment provider’s network, with coverage expanding as more financial institutions enable account-authenticated checkout and faster bank-to-bank transfers.

With an East Coast footprint spanning Stop & Shop, Giant Food, The Giant Company, Food Lion, and Hannaford, Ahold Delhaize added the capability last year for customers to set up bank-to-bank payments for future orders, with an emphasis on reliability, security, and account authentication.

The expansion makes the bank payment option fully available on Ahold Delhaize USA’s proprietary omnichannel platform across e-commerce sites and mobile apps for the three participating brands. Digital grocery customers should now see the option for online orders across those storefronts.

Paying directly from a bank account streamlines the experience and gives shoppers another way to pay, said Keith Nicks, Ahold Delhaize USA’s chief commercial and digital officer.

In this context, “pay by bank” generally refers to a cardless checkout method where a customer authorizes a payment straight from a bank account to a merchant, bypassing card networks and their associated rails. The payment can be routed through different bank-to-bank systems depending on the provider and the customer’s bank.

Pay by bank is widely considered a legitimate payment approach when offered by established merchants and payment processors, and it typically relies on account authentication and verification to help confirm the payer is authorized to use the bank account. Common protections can include bank-level login or app-based authentication, encrypted data handling, and fraud monitoring designed to reduce unauthorized use.

Well-designed pay-by-bank checkout pairs bank-grade authentication with real-time risk checks, helping merchants confirm account access without exposing shoppers’ card credentials.

Pay by bank is not necessarily the same thing as ACH, though it can use ACH in some implementations. ACH is a long-running bank transfer system that is often batch-based, while pay by bank can also run over faster, real-time payment rails; the shared idea is moving money account-to-account rather than through card networks.

Interest in bank-to-bank payments has accelerated alongside real-time payment rails. In addition to the real-time payments network operated through The Clearing House, the Federal Reserve launched an instant payments system for banks in 2023. As those rails mature, merchants are looking for lower-cost payment acceptance and fewer card-related fees, while consumers are increasingly comfortable approving transactions through their bank’s authentication flows and getting faster payment confirmation for digital purchases.

Benefits of pay by bank can include an additional checkout choice for shoppers, the ability to pay without a card on hand, and a transaction that is reflected directly in bank activity; for merchants, potential advantages include lower payment acceptance costs relative to cards and less exposure to some card-specific fraud and chargeback dynamics.

Challenges can include uneven availability across banks, customer adoption friction during setup, the need for tight technical integration and risk controls, and operational questions around refunds and customer support. Depending on the underlying rail, some transactions may also be harder to reverse once authorized, which raises the importance of clear consumer messaging and strong authentication.

Disputes for pay-by-bank transactions are typically handled through a combination of the merchant’s refund and customer-service process and the consumer’s bank processes for investigating errors or unauthorized account activity. Compared with card chargebacks—which are formalized through card networks—bank-to-bank dispute handling can be more dependent on the payment rail used and the policies of the participating institutions.

Also in 2023, executives at Milwaukee-based Fiserv highlighted an agreement to bring bank-based checkout to Walmart, while grocery rival Kroger signaled interest in the method.

Looking ahead, pay by bank is expected to expand as more banks enable authenticated digital checkout experiences and as instant payment capabilities become more common across U.S. financial institutions. Further adoption could be supported by improved consumer protections, more standardized account-authentication experiences, and broader merchant integration across additional commerce channels.