Payments specialist Banking Circle reported a significant uplift in payments flow and clients a year after it secured a banking license in Luxembourg.

At the end of February 2020, Banking Circle received its Banking License from the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), enabling it to give financial institutions direct access to real-time payments.

Additionally, the firm had also launched its new headquarters in Luxembourg.

Twelve months on, the company is reporting significant growth as it continues to support the cross border flows of payments businesses and banks, while they focus on delivering solutions to their end customers.

Key achievements and targets include:

• Doubled client base to over 150+ financial institutions including Stripe, Alibaba and Paysafe
• Processed 6% of Europe’s B2C e-commerce flow in 2020
• Processed EUR 155bn of payments volume in 2020
• Targeting EUR 250 billion run-rate annual payment volumes and 100 million annual bank transfers by end of 2021

Acquired by the EQT VIII fund and EQT Ventures fund (jointly known as EQT), together with company founders and other co-investors in September 2018, Banking Circle has been able to accelerate its growth in current and new geographies, with access to both operational and financial resources to drive innovation and investments in technology development and talent acquisition.

It has also leveraged the entire EQT platform, including deep TMT sector expertise, local presence and EQT’s global network of industrial advisors.

“Building on the considerable success achieved in the last 12 months, we have ambitious targets for the future which are possible because of the unique combination of in-house experts, a strong network and our majority shareholder, EQT, which supports the long-term vision with the funding necessary.

 

The end game for Banking Circle is to see the time and cost of cross border payments reduce significantly. Through the investment we are making in the payment rails across all key geographies and jurisdictions we are providing direct access to clearing in multiple countries unconstrained by the same legacy issues of correspondent banks.”

said Anders la Cour, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder.

Featured image credit: Anders la Cour, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Banking Circle: image via Youtube