Luxembourg-based Banking Circle, a financial infrastructure provider built for payments businesses and banks, has announced the acquisition of London-based B4B Payments, a company that specialises in smart corporate payments and card solutions for businesses.
The deal is currently going through the regulatory approval process. After closing the acquisition, B4B Payments will operate as an independent sister company of Banking Circle.
A single platform for global payments
Founded in 2006 by Paul Swinton and Rob Anderson, B4B Payments (formerly Payment Card Solutions) is a fintech company that offers payment processing solutions for businesses to manage expenses, simplify payroll, reimbursements, and offer employee rewards and incentives.
B4B Payments is a regulated Electronic Money Institution in the UK and Lithuania regulated by the FCA and Bank of Lithuania respectively as well as a Principal Member of Mastercard Europe and a partner of VISA Inc in the USA.
Formerly known as Payment Card Solutions, B4B Payments also manages and operates the re-loadable scrapyard payout solution, Bread4Scrap.
With over 1,000 customers and growing, B4B Payments continues to offer flexible and time-saving solutions that streamline and eliminate antiquated finance and accounting processes.
The company also has increased its reach throughout Europe. B4B Payments Europe is a member of the Federation of Small Businesses, PIF (Prepaid International Forum), Innovate Finance, and the Mayor of Londonโs International Business Program.
Paul Swinton of B4B says, โUnder the new ownership we will have access to the investment and financial infrastructure to build on and accelerate our expansion across Europe and the US, and to expand our portfolio of payments solutions for businesses. In addition, we plan to launch a unique BIN-sponsorship proposition, building on B4Bโs leading issuing capabilities and Banking Circleโs financial technology platform.โ
Aim of this acquisition
With this development, both Banking Circle and B4B will form a provider of issuing and payment solutions with full value chain coverage and scalability.
As part of the Banking Circle ecosystem, B4B will continue to expand its portfolio of payments solutions for businesses, providing various financial services and product add-on optionality with wide reach and distribution power.
The management team will remain with B4B and will continue to lead the company going forward. In addition, Tom Jennings and Brian Lawlor, both with over 15 years experience within the payments and issuing industry, will join B4Bโs management team to help scale the business.
Anders la Cour, CEO of Banking Circle Group adds, โBanking Circle is growing rapidly in both its customer base and its service offering, and B4B Payments is a natural extension of that evolution. Together with B4B, we can provide Banks and Payments businesses with additional capabilities such as card issuing, built on top of our core platform of payments, accounts and liquidity. We look forward to working closely with the B4B team.โ
About Banking Circle
Anders la Cour founded Banking Circle in 2013. It is a fully licenced bank committed to building a local clearing network for all major currencies, to deliver the fastest, lowest cost payments, with no hidden fees for its clients.
Banks and payments businesses can access a range of banking services – multi-currency bank accounts, local clearing, cross border payments and flexible business lending, compliantly and securely – without the need to build their own infrastructure and correspondent banking partner network.
Through flexible, scalable, and future proof solutions, Banking Circle is enabling financial institutions to help their customers transact across borders in a way that was previously not possible. Currently, it has offices in London, Munich, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen.
Fintech Files Powered by AWS
In the new section Fintech Files, in collaboration with AWS, we are keeping tabs (pun intended) on the thriving fintech industry in the Benelux. Want to learn more about the benefits of the cloud, or talk to one of their experts? Visit AWS Startup Loft to register for the latest events, get free 1:1 support from AWS experts and discover more resources. Build and scale your (fintech) startup with $1,000 in AWS Activate credits, free tools, technical support and training to quickly get started with AWS. Learn more about AWS Startup Loft
01
How Leipzig became a hub for energy and medical tech startups with IRL and SpinLab support