Banking Circle’s latest enhancement to its Agency Banking solution provides Financial Institutions (FI’s) and Payment Service Providers (PSP’s) with a faster and cheaper access point to local payment schemes to expand into further markets.
The solution delivers indirect access to EURO local clearing via SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) and GBP via Faster Payments Service (FPS). FI’s and PSP’s are able to access local payment schemes without the development and administrative costs linked to direct participation with the clearing houses (ACH) or integration with multiple banks.
“The key with our efficient and convenient Agency Banking solution is to give clients faster ‘go to market’ accessibility,” explained Michael Boel, Head of Clearing and Product Execution at Banking Circle. “Utilising our local clearing and settlement connections, we are providing our clients with indirect access to SEPA SCT, SEPA Instant and FPS. There’s no need to connect directly to a clearing house or hold a central bank settlement account. Banking Circle has done the ‘heavy lifting’ of connecting with the clearing houses and establishing central bank accounts, reducing costs and integration complexities for our clients.”
Through Banking Circle’s Agency Banking solution, indirect participants can issue accounts, using their own Bank Identifier Codes (BICs) and International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) to send and receive payments. The account/IBAN will be in the localised country format, which the FI or PSP is regulated, including their own branch code, which is obtained from their regulator or in the case of the UK issued by a Pay.UK member, such as Banking Circle.
Using their own BIC and IBANs for payments presents the FI or PSP as the ordering party and their customer as the sender. This provides full payment transparency while keeping the client in control of their end-customer relationships. Access to Banking Circle’s Agency Banking solution is provided through a single integration via API or SWIFT for all payment and collections needs. To be eligible, FI’s and PSP’s, will need to be regulated in the SEPA zone or UK to become indirect participants.
In a press release published on the 7th February 2024, by the European Parliament, a regulation was passed mandating instant payment options to send and receive payments for consumers and businesses in the SEPA zone. Banking Circle’s Agency Banking solution aligns with this regulation, by enabling FI’s and PSP’s, ‘speed to market’ to instant payment schemes and closing the accessibility gap to become indirect participants in EURO and GBP payment schemes.
“Our Agency Banking solution is further evidence of Banking Circle’s commitment to improve payments for the global banking economy”, continued Michael. “Becoming a direct participant of Faster Payments ourselves in 2022 was an essential step to enable us to offer real-time payments across a growing number of currencies. Incorporating this into our Agency Banking solution means we are helping clients to remove another barrier to cost-effective and timely payments.”
“Alongside our existing industry-leading cross-border payment capabilities, our Agency Banking solution makes Banking Circle a vital partner for expanding FI’s and PSP’s in the increasingly globalisation of payment requirements.”