Asima is now open for applications

A milestone moment

We are pleased to announce that Asima is officially open for applications. For those following our recent posts, you will know this moment has been building for some time. Asima was designed to provide the secure, high-performance infrastructure behind Open Banking payments and data access, and today marks the first opportunity for new partners to join us.

This is more than an opening of doors. It is a significant milestone for the UK payments sector, giving forward-thinking businesses a route into the future of financial connectivity without the overheads and uncertainty that often come with early adoption.

“Asima was created to remove friction for innovators. We’ve kept the process structured but simple, with compliance and resilience at the core. Today is about opening that gateway to everyone who wants to build the next generation of financial services.” — Kieron James, CEO, Wonderful Payments

A simple, structured process

Getting started with Asima has been designed to be straightforward, structured and compliant from the outset:

Pre-qualification form – the first step is to complete a short form that provides us with a top-level view of your business.
Initial review – our Compliance and Technical teams will carefully assess your application to ensure Asima is the right fit.
Discovery call – once approved, you will be invited to a call to explore your requirements and answer any questions.
Detailed onboarding – following the call, you will be asked to complete a more comprehensive form, covering technical, operational and compliance details.
Sandbox keys issued – once reviewed, you will receive credentials for the Asima Sandbox. This environment mirrors production in every way, except that transactions are capped at 10p value.
Seamless transition to live – when you are ready, it is a simple matter of signing contracts, settling any integration or initial period invoices, and receiving your production API keys.

The intention is to keep the process light enough not to discourage innovation, but robust enough to give our partners the assurance that compliance and technical resilience are baked in from the start.

Why this matters

Open Banking in the UK has passed key adoption milestones, with more than 15 million active users and over two billion API calls each month^[1]. This is no longer a test environment for financial services – it is a production-ready ecosystem. Asima exists to give innovators access to that ecosystem with the reliability and cost-efficiency they need to scale.

By providing a sandbox that behaves exactly like production, we eliminate one of the common frustrations in financial technology: the discrepancy between test and live. Developers can build with confidence, knowing their integration will perform consistently when they are ready to switch on real-world transactions.

Tangential but important

Readers of our earlier posts will remember some of the practical checklists we shared – covering everything from operational resilience requirements to customer experience considerations. Those articles were not designed as promotional pieces, but highlighted the kinds of details that matter when evaluating an Open Banking partner.

Asima is built with those considerations in mind. Our onboarding process is not simply about issuing keys, but about ensuring you have the right foundation to deliver secure, scalable services. The “tangential” becomes central when your business depends on uptime, compliance and customer trust.

Benefits of working with Asima

The launch of applications is the right moment to restate why so many businesses have already chosen to engage with us:

Transparent pricing – our low per-transaction costs ensure Open Banking remains commercially viable at scale.
Enterprise-grade infrastructure – we designed Asima to handle high volumes, with consistent performance and rigorous uptime commitments.
Compliance built in – from data protection to financial regulation, we have aligned our services with the standards required of Authorised Payment Institutions.
Developer-first design – detailed documentation, realistic sandboxing and responsive technical support make integration efficient.
Scalable innovation – whether your focus is payments, account information, or future developments like Smart Debits (cVRP), Asima provides the underlying infrastructure.

These are not theoretical promises. They are commitments grounded in our history of delivering regulated, secure, and high-availability services across the wider Wonderful ecosystem.

Looking ahead

Opening for applications is only the beginning. We expect the coming months to see a wave of experimentation, integration and deployment from new partners across a wide range of industries. Retail, charities, SaaS platforms, and financial services providers are already exploring how Asima can reduce costs, improve user experience, and unlock new business models.

As we progress, we will continue to share insights on the Asima blog – from regulatory updates and industry checklists, to practical guides on integration and scaling.

How to apply

Applications are now open. If your business is ready to explore Open Banking infrastructure built for enterprise reliability and developer efficiency, complete our pre-qualification form today.

Book your discovery call

Our team will review your submission promptly, and you could be building in the sandbox very soon.