Banking Circle Acquires SEPAexpress

On Tuesday 19 April 2022, Luxembourg-based payments specialist Banking Circle announced the acquisition of SEPAexpress, which provides account-to-account (A2A) payments for Payments ServiceProviders (PSPs) and merchants in Europe,  the next generation financial technology platform for global commerce.

Less than five years after bringing its first solution to market, SEPAexpress now processes millions of transactions on a monthly basis. By becoming part of Banking Circle ecosystem, it will gain immediate access to technology infrastructure and financial resources to accelerate its growth.

As companies digitalise their customer and supply-chain interactions, there is a growing need for modern aged financial solutions. With offices worldwide and payment flows of more than €200 billion, Banking Circle ecosystem meets that need, serving payment businesses, banks, global markets and online merchants.The addition of SEPAexpress to Banking Circle ecosystem complements  its e-commerce solutions including embedded finance, business payments and cardissuing, and B2B (business-to-business) Buy Now Pay Later.

Franz Guttenberger, CEO of SEPAexpress, said: “By joining the Banking Circle ecosystem we will be able to capitalise on thee stablished infrastructure and financial resources to realise our vision of extending our services across Europe". He continued: "Businesses across the region need to be able to focus on their customer propositions and by utilising our services, they don’t need to worry about the payment process.”

Anders la Cour, Chief Executive Officer of Banking Circle Group, added: "The quality and simplicity of the solutions from SEPAexpress are without compare in the industry". He underlined: "Its suite of offerings is a natural fit with the Banking Circle ecosystem and we’re excited to have the company on board to serve the ever-growing payment needs of businesses worldwide. We look forward to working closely with SEPAexpress and welcome the entire team to the Group.”

Launched to the market in 2017, SEPAexpress rapidly established itself for innovation, enabling businesses to process Direct Debits faster, cheaper and with less risk. It now plans to extend further in the account-to-account space and will be able to leverage the global network of more than 200 Payment businesses, Banks and Marketplaces already connected to the Banking Circle ecosystem.

A2A payments are payments that move money directly from the payer's bank account to the merchant's or service provider's bank account through all instant payment networks involved. This type of credit transfer is inexpensive, push-only and only takes a few seconds to complete. It is predicted that more than 20% of e-commerce transactions in Europe will be made by A2A payment options by 2023, accounting for a higher share of payments than debit and credit cards.

Capitalising on being part of the Banking Circle ecosystem, SEPAexpress aims to be at the forefront of this growth, making payments as simple and user-friendly as possible. SEPAexpress will continue to operate autonomously and is aiming for triple digit growth in 2022.