Embedding Credit into B2B Payment Flows

Unleashing the Power of BaaS and Data-driven Liquidity.

As interest rates continue to rise, the working capital challenge is brought into sharp focus for both SMEs and corporates.  For the SME market, the ability to access credit efficiently and seamlessly has become a vital requirement in sustaining the business.  For corporates, maximizing working capital efficiency has become a source of considerable competitive advantage.  While traditional banks have long been the go-to source for business financing, their restrictive lending practices and legacy technology often limit SME and corporate customers from accessing the funds they need in a timely fashion and put a brake on working capital optimization, stalling business objectives and growth.

However, with the emergence of Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) providers and the innovative concept of embedding credit into B2B payment flows, a new era of financial empowerment has dawned.

The Power of Embedding Credit

Whilst embedded payments and financing have changed the B2C experience over the last few years, embedding the more complex payment and credit flows into B2B businesses is still at an early stage, complicated by the requirement to work with a range of accounting, ERP, and treasury management systems.  The opportunity to revolutionize B2B payment flows, however, means that the opportunity is significant. BaaS technology companies, such as Bankable, are at the forefront of this financial transformation. By integrating alternative credit offerings directly into their proprietary B2B payment infrastructure, they enable businesses to leverage unlimited credit as a strategic tool to optimize cash flow and seize growth opportunities. All accessed through simple plug-and-play API connectivity.

One of the key USPs of embedding credit into B2B payment flows is the ability to provide bespoke financing products. Traditional banks often rely on underwriting methods that fail to capture the true potential of SMEs based on their historic accounting or real-time financial data. With its recent acquisition of AREX Markets, Bankable’s technology has the power to analyze a vast array of data points to assess creditworthiness accurately. This data-driven approach ensures that credit products are designed to cater to the specific needs of businesses, empowering them to access the optimum amount of liquidity required for growth.

Equally as challenging in the large corporate space is the lack of flexibility in accessing credit. Traditional providers take a rather fixed approach to approving and provisioning credit via solutions such as revolving credit facilities which incur cost and time just to set up. The new generation of BaaS providers can be far more dynamic in approving and provisioning the right amount of funds, at the point of need, thus minimizing costs and maximizing the working capital efficiency.

By integrating financing into the payment process, businesses can access immediate liquidity and bridge the gap between payables and receivables through invoice or purchase order financing. This enables companies to maintain a healthy cash flow, facilitating timely payments to suppliers and enabling them to seize new growth opportunities.

Seamless Integration with Payment Flows

By seamlessly integrating credit offerings and liquidity options into B2B payment flows, BaaS providers eliminate the need for businesses to navigate multiple platforms and lengthy loan application processes. This streamlined approach allows companies to access credit at the moment they need it most, without disrupting their day-to-day operations. Whether it’s bridging short-term cash flow gaps or investing in expansion plans, the ability to access credit on-demand is a game-changer for SMEs and corporates.

The BaaS market has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years, driven by the increasing demand for flexible financial solutions. Traditional banks now have the power to better serve their SME and corporate customer by leveraging BaaS providers for their unique credit offerings, and ability around time to market for new solutions. Furthermore, the growing ecosystem of BaaS providers is fostering competition and innovation, resulting in better products and services for businesses.

While the BaaS credit market is still in its early stages, its potential is undeniable. As more companies recognize the advantages of embedding credit into B2B payment flows, the market is poised for rapid expansion. However, to truly unlock the potential of credit products for businesses, the focus must remain on leveraging data to drive liquidity.

The Future of BaaS

The integration of financing options such as credit into B2B payment flows is revolutionizing the financial landscape for businesses, and BaaS providers like Bankable are leading the pack. By leveraging data-driven insights derived from accounting and payment data, Bankable can offer complementary credit products tailored to the specific needs of both small SMEs and large corporates alike. This approach empowers businesses to access the liquidity they need to fuel growth and seize opportunities whilst simultaneously empowering banks and other enterprise platforms to better service more of their customers.

It is crucial for the financial industry to recognize that true credit products should be designed to embrace the unique challenges faced by SMEs. By harnessing the power of data, BaaS providers can bridge the gap between the underserved SMEs and the credit they deserve. It is time for a new era of inclusive BaaS and credit solutions that empower smaller businesses to thrive, and BaaS is at the forefront of making that a reality.

As the financial landscape continues to evolve, the integration of credit into B2B payment flows offers a promising path towards a more inclusive and efficient financial ecosystem, where all businesses have access to the credit they deserve.

About Bankable

Bankable is a global architect of innovative payment solutions enabling Banking as a Service. We enable and serve dominant financial institutions, corporates, and FinTech entrepreneurs to bring to market highly differentiated payment solutions supported by a very strong, immediate business case. Bankable is a founding member of Innovate Finance.

BaaS pioneer Bankable acquires embedded finance platform Arex Markets.

Embedded working capital and unlimited liquidity will enhance the breadth of the Bankable banking infrastructure core proposition.

London, UK– 15th of June 2023 – Bankable, a pioneer in the Banking-as-a-service industry, today announced the acquisition of Arex Markets, giving the combined company the ability to embed credit and working capital into the payment flows of established neobanks, multinational brands and fintech platforms. Arex Markets’ proprietary technology enables investors to finance a variety of commercial papers to seamlessly speed up payment flows and ease the working capital challenge.

As BaaS and embedded finance solutions continue to proliferate, the B2B finance space continues to struggle with quick and flexible access to liquidity solutions, whilst investors continue to search for the right balance between risk and yield. The legacy banking system has not been able to provide the ability to offer credit and working capital solutions which can be embedded in transactional flows as diverse as accounts payable, invoicing, cards issuing and cross border supplier payments. Which forces businesses to consider alternative private financiers or carrying additional costs on their balance sheet.

Bankable will add working capital (flexible invoice financing , corporate credit cards, lodged cards and revolving credit) to the existing API-first digital platform.  Customers will have the ability to become ‘Bankable’ and build cards, payments, and credit solutions on top of the Bankable virtual account core in minutes. Through extensive investor partnerships, Bankable can offer unlimited working capital matched with an extensive portfolio of relevant customers.  Early use cases for the combined offering are being rolled out in the B2B wholesale travel sector for working capital support on supplier payments; supporting pan-European scale-up fintechs and neo-banks to take the next step in building net new revenues from credit cards; and working with global consumer brands to establish a single payments solution tailored to their needs.

Core to the Bankable approach is working as a friend to the established banking industry and Bankable is working closely with several tier 1 institutions to welcome them as new investors on to the platform providing them with an additional route to deploy capital quickly and flexibly.

Eric Mouilleron, CEO & founder of Bankable: “Together with Arex Markets, we share the same entrepreneurial culture and ambition. Thanks to our complementary assets and strong alignment of our teams, we can attract premium clients seeking to develop a uniform pan-European banking offer leveraging our best-in-class API platform including credit. This partnership clearly sets us up with the richest Bank as a Service offer for premium clients with clear multi-country ambitions.”

Airto Vienola, CEO of Arex Markets, added: “Bankable and Arex share the same mission: to offer embedded financial services across Europe to fintechs, established businesses and brands. Together with Bankable, we offer both a formidable infrastructure powered by the best technology that gives access to banking-related services that are modular and easy to integrate, and the deepest product breadth in the Bank-as-a-Service European market, covering accounts, cards and credit.”

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About Bankable:

https://www.bnkbl.com/

Bankable is a global digital core banking platform and Banking as a Service provider. We help financial institutions, corporates and fintech deploy, orchestrate, and operate highly differentiated payment solutions with quick time to market.

About Arex Markets

https://arex.io

AREX Market operates a marketplace connecting businesses with institutional investors unlocking capital by giving them access to an entire suite of credit solutions. AREX’s mission is to drive the cost of financing down so hard-working businesses can retain more of their money and focus on their business.

Bankable contact: pr@bnkbl.com

Bankable and Paysafe team up to provide omnichannel banking services

Bankable partners with Paysafe to launch a broad range of integrated, omnichannel banking services from Paysafe. Under the global agreement, Paysafe will use Bankable’s core banking services.

Today, Bankable announced a partnership with Paysafe, a world-beating leading and specialized payments platform. Bankable would provide it’s scalable and secure API as Paysafe’s new core banking platform and launch with Paysafe a broad new range of integrated services.

Paysafe as a company strives to enable businesses and consumers to connect and transact seamlessly via it’s digital wallets, online cash solutions and payment processing capabilities. It’s mission is to provide a differentiated value proposition for each and every customer that goes beyond the standard offerings available to them.

Bankable and Paysafe have previously collaborated together with it’s card issuing services to provide the British Red Cross with Prepaid Visa cards to support emergencies. This solution enabled families and individuals to use prepaid cards in the event of a crisis, providing a safe and discreet way to distribute money across those in need.

After signing the agreement, Noah Sharp, Chief Banking Officer at Paysafe, commented: “At Paysafe we’re progressing a number of innovative banking-as-a-service initiatives and broadening our network of relationships with leading banks, and we have a lot of exciting plans up our sleeve. To work with a strong, proven partner like Bankable, and the highly experienced team they bring, is an important component of our delivery in this area.”

Eric Mouilleron, Founder & CEO of Bankable added: “Like Bankable, Paysafe is a customer-centric organisation. Bankable signature one stop platform will serve as Paysafe’s new core banking platform, providing the company with technology to advance its payments infrastructure and enhance the services it provides to customers. We’re excited to support the company in its ambitious, global plans..”

Bankable, the global architect of “Banking as a Service” solutions, announced that his client Blank is now live.

Blank, a French digital bank for independent workers, is backed-up by Crédit Agricole Group via its startup studio, La Fabrique by CA. Crédit Agricole Group, the 10th largest bank in the world by total assets – serving 51 million clients across 47 countries, launched La Fabrique by CA to identify opportunities in banking and finance offers and support the development of selected Fintechs next to Crédit Agricole offers.

Bankable joins Visa Fintech Fast Track Programme as a New Enablement Partner

Visa’s Fintech Fast Track programme is designed to enable the next generation of fintechs to join Visa’s network and build innovative digital commerce experiences for consumers and merchants

Fast Track programme grows 360% year-over-year, and supports the creation of payment innovations like digital wallets, Business to Business (B2B) and digital currency payment.

See full article here: https://www.visa.co.uk/about-visa/newsroom/press-releases.3051987.html

Bankable and Paysafe support British Red Cross to offer Visa prepaid cards in emergencies

The British Red Cross has transformed its approach to cash assistance in the event of emergencies following a new partnership with banking-as-a-service provider Bankable and specialised payments platform Paysafe.

Cash assistance is the means by which British Red Cross delivers financial aid during emergencies to make sure that recipients are able to access the goods and services they really need.

Emergencies – whether localised such as a house fire, or national or international such as a health pandemic – can have a large economic impact on communities. If homes are damaged and people aren’t able to work, communities that may already be in vulnerable situations are under increasing financial strain to make ends meet and the British Red Cross is there to help. The charity is now able to give families and individuals in need access to prepaid Visa cards via on-the-ground support workers, instead of relying on cash.

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, some media reports suggesting that cash may aid the spread of the disease have resulted in a shift in its usage and some retailers no longer accepting it as a form of payment, despite scientific evidence to the contrary. According to Paysafe research undertaken in April 2020, 53% of Brits are worried about handling cash following the COVID-19 outbreak, with 51% saying they planned to reduce their long term use of cash due to health and safety concerns.

The British Red Cross’ new Bankable-branded prepaid Visa cards are issued by Paysafe and can be used by recipients at any point of sale or ATM, that accepts Visa. The cards are pre-loaded with an amount defined by the charity and have a unique identification number.

The British Red Cross strives to provide scalable and timely cash assistance within hours after any UK emergency. Its mission is to support individuals and communities in preparing for, dealing with and recovering from a crisis, whoever and wherever they are. The charity responds to an emergency on average every four hours, ranging from domestic fires or utility outages to floods or terror attacks.

Jon Pewtner, UK Operations Cash Manager at the British Red Cross, comments: “By allowing families and individuals to use prepaid cards in the event of an emergency we are able to provide a safe, discrete and empowering way to distribute money to those in crisis. We now operate our Cash Assistance programme with a 24-hour support team. Working with Bankable, Paysafe and Visa we’ve been able to transform our approach to cash assistance and the way we provide funds to those in need in emergency situations. With this programme in place, we have been able to respond with agility and action throughout our COVID-19 response.”

Eric Mouilleron, Founder & CEO of Bankable said: “We’re proud to be supporting the British Red Cross in transforming their financial services and the provision of real-time funds to those in need. This is just one great example of the amazing work they do in supporting the nation in the event of a crisis.”

Lorenzo Pellegrino, CEO of Skrill, NETELLER and Income Access at Paysafe – responsible for the company’s Card Issuing division – added: “We’re seeing many innovative and specialised uses of prepaid cards, but this example is particularly powerful. We’re delighted to play a role in the British Red Cross’ transformation of its Cash Assistance programme.”

Bankable Announces Strategic Collaboration with Visa to Continue Growing Globally

  • Bankable announces strategic collaboration with Visa
  • Bankable opens new office[1] in the heart of the Flatiron District

New York, USA – February 4th, 2020 – Bankable, the global architect of “Banking as a Service” solutions, today announced a strategic collaboration with Visa in the United States. Bankable aims to provide Visa’s U.S. clients, including corporate and financial institutions, access to its real-time and modular banking solutions, enabling them to deploy digital banking and faster payment services. To accommodate ongoing work in the U.S., Bankable is opening an office in New York, which is Bankable’s fourth office after London, Brussels and Dubai.

The new premises will become Bankable’s U.S. hub, allowing the company to accelerate strategic initiatives across corporations, banks and fintechs headquartered in the country. The company is planning to make strategic hires in the next few months as the NY team will shoulder London and Dubai operations.

“Our strategic partnership with Visa represents a great opportunity to further accelerate digital payments innovation in the region. Our commercial team will initially focus on B2B payments,” said Eric Mouilleron, CEO and founder of Bankable. “As we already serve American clients, we see huge opportunities to digitally transform corporates headquartered in the U.S. as well as leading regional, community and selected global banks organized to support fintechs. We anticipate more than 50% of our revenues to come from the U.S. by 2024.”

“The financial ecosystem is evolving at rapid pace, and Bankable’s model helps financial institutions, corporates and fintechs be increasingly nimble to remain competitive,” said Terry Angelos, SVP and Global Head of Fintech, Visa. “Building on what we’ve done with Bankable in other regions, including CEMEA and Europe, we’re excited to now extend the partnership into the US.”

Notes to Editors:

For further information, please contact:

Sara Malinowsky at Bankable

sara@bnkbl.com / +44 20 3948 6034

About Bankable:

www.bnkbl.com

Bankable is a global digital banking and payments platform. We help financial institutions, corporates and FinTechs deploy, orchestrate and operate highly differentiated payment solutions with quick time-to-market.

We provide an exhaustive range of digital banking and payment solutions under a “Banking as a Service” model. Our core digital banking platform is available in white-label or via APIs, enabling our clients to quickly deploy banking solutions – including digital banking solutions, virtual account solution, payment processing services, card programmes and mobile wallet services. Our client base includes both regulated financial institutions (Banks, Electronic Money Issuers, Payment Institutions, Insurance companies…) and non-regulated global corporates and FinTechs who use our platform and Partner’s Ecosystem to deploy digital banking and payment services and generate new revenue opportunities.

Our motto: “quick time-to-market”

Bankable’s rapid implementation approach enables clients to generate revenues faster, increasing their valuation and attractiveness. By promoting pilot-based-experimentation, Bankable allows its customers to quickly launch, test and validate a new service before moving towards a seamless deployment.

[1] New York office is solely operated by Bankable

Bankable Announces Strategic Global Partnership with Plaid

New York, USA & London, UK – January 14th, 2020 – Today, Bankable, the global architect of “Banking as a Service” solutions, announced a strategic global partnership with Plaid, a data network powering the fintech apps that millions of people rely on to improve their financial lives. The partnership will allow Bankable’s customers the ability to use Plaid’s technology to connect with their users’ bank accounts worldwide. In addition, Plaid customers will gain access to Bankable’s cloud-based banking and payment platform. Bankable designs and seamlessly orchestrates global payment and digital banking services with its extensive integrated partners’ ecosystem. By leveraging Plaid’s API technology, Bankable will further enable quick time to market for its clients. Plaid provides connectivity to 15,000 banks in the US and Europe.

“Like Bankable, Plaid is a fintech enabler providing an infrastructure as a service to power various business cases in lending, personal / business finance, consumer payments. Plaid and Bankable are both focused, since inception, on democratising financial services through technology,” said Eric Mouilleron, CEO and Founder of Bankable “This reciprocal global partnership will help us to provide more services to our respective banking and fintech clients.”

“The infrastructure of financial services was not built for the digital demands of the industry today. Fintech companies and new digital-first banks offer consumers the tools and services they demand, but much of the existing bank technology core infrastructure hasn’t evolved along with these new customer needs,” said Lowell Putnam, Head of Partnerships at Plaid. “Providers like Bankable offer both fintech companies and financial institutions a platform to bring new products to market and meet shifting consumer demands, much more quickly than the legacy infrastructure allows.”

-ends-

 

Notes to Editors:

For further information, please contact:

Sara Malinowsky at Bankable

sara@bnkbl.com / 020 3948 6034

 

About Bankable:

www.bnkbl.com

Bankable is a global digital core banking platform and Banking as a Service provider. We help financial institutions, corporates and FinTechs deploy, orchestrate and operate highly differentiated payment solutions with quick time to market.

Bankable Visa Corporate Cards Live.

London, UK – 17 July 2019 – Bankable, the global architect of digital banking and payment solutions, is delighted to announce that 10 weeks following the beginning of its partnership with Visa, the first Bankable’s Visa cards are now in clients’ hands.

 

 

Global firms, Banks and Fintechs can now leverage Bankable’s multi-currency platform to launch corporate, purchasing, payroll and travel expenses programmes. Our solutions are available in prepaid, physical and virtual Visa cards.

 

Our API integrations with approved partners mean you can launch Bankable-branded Visa cards in 1 week and custom-designed cards in as little as 4 weeks.

 

Eric Mouilleron, Founder & CEO of Bankable, said: “On April 30 this year, we inked a strategic investment and a global partnership with Visa. On May 15, 2019, we communicated to our clients that our new Visa Corporate card solution will be live on July 10. On July 10, our Visa cards are live and delivered to our clients. Awesome! Visa and Bankable teams worked hand in hand with a strong sense of urgency to respect our clients’ time to market priorities.”

 

PDF release HERE

 

-ends-

 

Notes to Editors:

For further information, please contact:

Sara Malinowsky at Bankable

sara@bnkbl.com  / 020 3948 6034

 

About Bankable:

Bankable is a global digital core banking platform and Banking as a Service provider. We partner with financial institutions, corporates and FinTechs to deploy, orchestrate and operate highly differentiated payment solutions.

Bankable provides an exhaustive range of digital banking and payment solutions under a “Banking as a Service” model. Our core digital banking platform is available in white-label or via APIs, enabling our clients to quickly deploy banking solutions – including digital banking solutions, virtual account solution, payment processing services, card programmes and mobile wallet services. Our client base includes both regulated financial institutions (Banks, Electronic Money Issuers, Payment Institutions, Insurance companies…) and non-regulated global corporates and FinTechs who use our platform and Partner’s Ecosystem to deploy digital banking and payment services and generate new revenue opportunities.

Bankable has successfully delivered projects for demanding tier-1 banks and FinTechs for the last eight years. Bankable’s rapid implementation approach enables clients to generate revenues faster, increasing their valuation and attractiveness. By promoting pilot-based-experimentation, Bankable allows its customers to quickly launch, test and validate a new service before moving towards a seamless deployment and generate new net revenues.

More information on www.bnkbl.com