Banking Circle signs two separate partnerships for cross-border payment services
In the thriving world of European cross-border commercial payments, fintechs are competing with giant incumbents by partnering with small banking institutions. The result may look seamless on the front end, but behind the scenes, client funds get shuffled across multiple regulatory regimes.
Consider how Luxembourg-based bank and payments infrastructure provider Banking Circle has partnered with DynaPay and Safenetpay for cross-border payments. A relative minnow by banking standards with just €1.1 billion of assets, privately-owned Banking Circle is providing white labelled bank accounts to its fintech partners.
In the former, UK based payments company DynaPay is relying on Banking Circle to launch ‘fast and secure payment solutions for SMEs transacting globally and in multiple currencies’.
As noted in the press note, DynaPay is an FCA regulated electronic money institution that serves e-commerce, travel and other clients in the UK and EU. Under this partnership Banking Circle will provide DynaPay with virtual IBAN accounts to enable local payments and collections across borders.
“The DynaPay platform’s collaborative approach allows our clients to expand their services and markets across Europe,” said Konstantin Zaripov, Managing Director of DynaPay.
The Banking Circle virtual IBAN would allow FIs such as DynaPay the ability to issue multi-currency IBANs to its clients and in multiple jurisdictions. As noted in the press note, ‘this enables merchants to make and accept cross border payments in different currencies, in a way that traditional banks would simply not facilitate due to risk and legacy systems limitations’.
In the second partnership announced this week, Safenetpay would use Banking Circle’s multi-currency accounts, SEPA and SWIFT transactions solutions and foreign exchange (FX) capabilities to deliver its business clients with access to additional currencies, competitive FX rates, and quick, reliable transactions within SEPA.
Safenetpay is an Electronic Money Institution, authorised by the UK FCA, which provides solutions for business clients mainly with a ‘single platform that offers multi-currency accounts, competitive FX rates, card payment processing and merchant accounts’.
The company notes that a partnership with Banking Circle would allow Safenetpay with a wider range of customers and expand into new markets and it can ‘extend its service offering without the usual investment required’.
The partnerships come amid a flurry of similar cross-border payments initiatives. This month, Settle partnered with Currencycloud to provide cross-border payment services while EMQ also upgraded its network capabilities for cross-border payments.