B4B Payments, a multinational powerhouse in Banking as a Service (BaaS) offerings, caters to both corporate entities and fintech innovators alike. With a rich legacy spanning over 18 years in the payments industry and now proudly under the umbrella of the Banking Circle group, B4B Payments stands as a beacon of excellence in delivering cutting-edge card issuing and embedded payment solutions worldwide.
Regulated as an E-Money Institution (EMI) in the UK and Europe, B4B holds Principal Membership status with Mastercard and Visa. Across the Atlantic, B4B operates as a programme manager with several regulated banks, solidifying its footprint in the American market.
In an era of digital transformation and financial innovation, B4B Payments emerges as a trusted partner, bridging the gap between traditional banking services and the evolving needs of modern businesses and fintech disruptors. With a commitment to excellence and a global reach, B4B Payments continues to shape the future of banking solutions on an international scale.
Over the past 18 years, B4B Payments has demonstrated its resilience and adaptability in the ever-changing financial technology landscape. Born in 2006 amid the aftermath of the dot-com bubble, the company has navigated various industry shifts across its remarkable growth journey.
When B4B Payments was in its infancy, the term 'fintech' hinted at a future characterised by uncertainty and technological advancement, far from the regulated, high-investment landscape we recognise today.
Today, the company remains focused on its mission of making payments effortless for all businesses by reducing the barriers of time and cost. B4B Payments has expanded into international payments and foreign exchange (FX), managing licenses and BIN sponsorships for third parties and partners.
This evolution represents not just substantial growth but a transformation from a consumer-centric prepaid card provider to a full-stack Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider. The company has focused on mastering the art of delivering complex payment solutions, especially in expense management and payouts, that are seamless and simple to use in international markets, paving the way for a future of endless possibilities.
Leadership and Evolution
Under the leadership of Co-founder and Chairman, Paul Swinton, B4B Payments has charted a unique course in the industry's evolving landscape. Reflecting on the company's trajectory, Swinton and his business partner, Rob Anderson, embarked on an innovative journey that led B4B Payments to its current status as a fast-growing B2B BaaS provider, following their first foray into payments with a consumer prepaid card programme.
Swinton’s background in consulting, particularly in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations, facilitated his transition from IT integrations to finance. This shift was spurred by a mutual friend introducing him to prepaid card programmes, laying the foundation for B4B Payments' pioneering journey in fintech.
“We’ve gone from being a consumer card offering to focusing on business solutions, business payments and e-money accounts. Now, we're into global payments and FX, managing licences and BIN sponsorships for third parties and partners,” Swinton explains.
From Strategic Partnership to Acquisition
B4B Payments’ expansion into international payments gained significant momentum with its integration into the Banking Circle Group in 2019. An international, proprietary and cloud-based banking solution provider offering scalable financial infrastructure and a real-time clearing and settlement network, Banking Circle had served as a valued supplier for B4B Payments, laying the groundwork for a mutually beneficial partnership.
“What Banking Circle didn’t do at the time was card issuance, and it didn’t service corporates directly,” Swinton says.
That’s when B4B stepped in, which – now integrated with Banking Circle’s services – can issue cards to its sister company’s clients and provide ledgers at a virtual account level.
The partnership evolved into a strategic acquisition by Banking Circle in 2021. This acquisition gave the company access to Banking Circle’s ecosystem of global payments and banking services and partners. It accelerated B4B’s growth, positioning it as a formidable player in the payments solutions landscape.
Tom Jennings, who was Head of Issuing for Banking Circle at the time, says that prior to the acquisition of B4B Payments, Banking Circle had considered whether to build or buy a card-issuing platform.
“We chose the buy route for increased speed to market, and B4B represented the perfect acquisition target. It was always planned that I would shift into the role, and once the heads of terms were signed, I started working with Paul [Swinton] to develop the strategy,” says Jennings. After the acquisition, Jennings became the CEO of B4B Payments.
The formalisation of the acquisition allowed B4B Payments to access Banking Circle's expansive ecosystem of international payments and banking partners, accelerating the company’s growth trajectory and competitive edge. B4B Payments swiftly integrated Banking Circle's accounts and payments functionality into its existing card issuance platform, enhancing its offerings to corporates and partners.
“We were already a well-established and profitable business, a regulated business, so it was a good fit for us from a product perspective, and for them, another distribution channel and an expansion of their services,” Swinton says.
“Since joining Banking Circle, not only have we integrated their products with our own to enhance services for our clients, but we have greater access to capital and expanded opportunities to find new partners and customers.”
Expanding Horizons: The US Launch
The acquisition followed B4B Payments’ US market launch, a pivotal moment marking significant growth. Paul Swinton and Rob Anderson identified Kieran Draper as the ideal candidate to lead this expansion effort. Draper’s long career in management consulting with some of the biggest Financial Services firms made him the perfect choice for a product aimed at optimising corporate payments.
Reality hits hard sometimes, though, and when Draper joined to spearhead B4B Payments in the US, all he had “to start with was a whiteboard”. Additionally, external factors could not have made the US launch any more difficult than it was.
Expanding in the US in 2020 coincided with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notwithstanding the operational difficulties this posed, there were other key challenges to scaling in the US, including tapping into a B2B market with wholly different expectations and requirements.
Establishing a new ecosystem from the B4B Payments digital platform for the US was complex.
“The assumption that we could lift our tried and tested product from Europe and simply place it into the US market with different partners was probably not a fair one,” Draper notes.
“The platform would work, but the situation here is different, and customers are different. We were already partnered with Mastercard in Europe, and when we planned to partner with Visa in the US, we assumed it would be straightforward because their networks are similar.
“But they each had their own characteristics, almost like personalities,” Draper explained. “So, we had to try and fit what we’d been doing with Mastercard in Europe into the Visa frame here. And that wasn’t simple.”
Once the platform was complete, the focus shifted to market penetration and gaining traction in the US sector, which proved to be much different from the UK and EU.
The US market itself is markedly different too, as Draper explains: “In some ways, payments technology is more advanced in the UK and Europe compared to the US.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a company that would write you a check in London, whereas 70% of companies in the US still write checks.”
It was clear to Draper and B4B Payments’ leadership that they were truly dealing with a different environment and a level of internal and external education was required. Given the circumstances, B4B Payments made a strategic decision to “slow down delivery in the US, “ according to Draper, “to ensure that we were fully prepared and equipped to meet the unique demands of the US market”.
Achieving Growth
Despite the challenges of 2020, B4B Payments achieved impressive growth. “I’m proud of the past couple of years [2022-2023],” says Swinton. “We’ve had triple-digit revenue growth in both of those years, so 100%+ year-on-year, which has been fabulous.
“We’ve achieved that through expanding our product sets. So, we’ve moved from being purely a card issuer into being a corporate accounts provider, corporate payments, and global FX provider.”
Swinton adds: “We’ve turned our products into an API set that our partners can consume to offer similar banking-like services to their clients. So that’s provided us with new distribution channels and streams, which has enabled us to grow at this fantastic rate over these last few years.”
Brian Lawlor, Group Chief Commercial Officer at B4B Payments, says the strategic expansion has helped B4B Payments establish itself in the US, a market with significant growth potential. He adds that the move not only demonstrates the company’s confidence in its capabilities but its commitment to exploring new horizons.
“The opportunities there remain huge and have the biggest growth potential for us as a group. There’s massive potential in the card industry, in part, due to the higher interchange allows for smaller issuers compared to other parts of the world.”
Indeed, B4B’s product is what sets it apart from the competition too, as Jennings says: “From the companies we’ve talked to who are using similar products, they tell us that our product is more advanced than what’s on offer in the US market. So, there’s a lot of anticipation now for growth as we build up the team and really start pushing the product out into the market.”
And, while admitting B4B has “had to grow up a little bit” in the US arena, Draper “wholeheartedly believes accelerated growth will happen”.
“There are two parts to the equation. There is a mature market that is looking for better solutions all the time that we can create opportunity from, but there is also a huge untapped market,” Draper says. “So, there’s a lot we can create opportunities from, particularly when it comes to virtual cards and digital payments.
“This will be helped by the additional capabilities that Banking Circle brings (to the US). Once we can use their licences as our banking licences and we can scale BIN sponsorship, we will be uniquely positioned to offer American companies payment rails back to Europe. And that, I think, will help us explode.”
Managing Partners and Complexity
By achieving the scale B4B Payments has while meeting its growth plans for the future, the fintech has and will continue to rely on the right strategic partnerships to ensure growth is sustained.
For the company, “partnerships are essential,” and come in two categories, explains Lawlor.
“We’re a B2B, but what we’re really like is a B2B2B. Our job is to support our clients who are like partners – as best we can. Many of our partners are focused on niches or industries, and it’s our job to see how they scale.”
B4B Payments’ channel partners are highly experienced and established in their respective industries. While they excel at managing their core business operations and customer relationships, they often find it challenging to handle payments and banking tasks, which are crucial for their smooth functioning.
“If they succeed and scale effectively, the knock-on effect for us is that we do too,” continues Lawlor. “So, for us, it’s about supporting them as best we can, making sure we offer them new and correct products and services, all the while helping them become more efficient. Here, incremental growth is mutually beneficial.”
Lawlor says that, on the other hand, the company’s partnerships extend to the stakeholders in the ecosystems it works with. “From an issuing perspective, that would be the likes of Mastercard and Visa, as well as our partners on the BIN sponsorship side and our issuer processors. There are card bureaus too, and of course, we work with and are part of Banking Circle, which provides us with banking services.”
Each of these partnerships is as important as the next, whether on the client side or if they provide B4B Payments with a service.
“All of these partnerships are important because, ultimately, we will all grow together,” Lawlor adds. “It’s mutually beneficial opportunities that you’re sharing, working to develop new, exciting and leading products to take to market. All these things combined are what is going to give us that growth and scale.”
Indeed, the scope at which B4B’s Payments’ platform can be applied may seem complex, which, in turn, has the potential to ‘put off’ prospective partners. But this is a belief Lori Breitzke, Head of Channel Development at B4B can easily debunk.
“That’s because onboarding and leveraging B4B’s platform is quite the opposite, it’s very simple,” she says.
B4B has built a single global platform that is common across international territories, with a single global data processor and a single set of APIs. This allows customers to subscribe to one solution and one set of services to access tremendous capabilities in the background.
“The simpler a platform looks on the surface, the greater complexity there is on the back end,” says Lawlor. “We present a solution to our partners that, therefore, effectively shields them from this complexity.”
Offering a seamless, easily accessible service enables B4B’s partners to better manage their own complexities, such as those companies offering services across borders and juggling varying regulations and payment methods.
To best manage the needs of its partners, B4B has focused on delivering a best-in-class embedded finance solution that is seamless and used by companies to make and receive payments in multiple currencies and, where possible, on local rails to keep costs down.
Being mindful of consumer protection regulations, B4B has kept its focus on corporate-funded cards, where funds can only be added by a company or organisation from a pre-funded account, as opposed to general-purpose reloadable cards which allow the cardholder to add additional funds.
“By focusing on business cards and business loads, we don’t allow cash onto these cards, so it’s as low risk for our partners as it can get,” Breitzke explains. “Additionally, we add client protection tools to make sure our digital cards are as easy to use and low-risk as possible. For example, a client can restrict spending at certain merchant locations (e.g. liquor stores and casinos) and integrate corporate approval controls for the additional loading of funds.”
“It’s so important to be compliant, particularly when you’re still a relatively new entrant on the market,” she says. “That’s because when you’re building out these partnerships, trust is the most important thing. It’s about proving we do the things we say we do to our partners and clients, and showing them clearly how we do it, which, for me, is the key to establishing trust and growing partnerships.”
Navigating the regulatory landscape is not just complex because you must meet the conditions of different markets, they’re complex because they’re ever-evolving.
“The bar is so high now,” says Jennings. “It’s not just what’s current, but it’s also the horizon planning. You’ve got Dora in Europe, you’ve got PSD3 coming up, and we’ve got no doubt new AML directives around the corner. It’s constant.”
This is why B4B’s specific focus on corporate-funded cards generates greater simplicity for its clients and ensures compliance is strictly adhered to. With its expertise in the regulatory landscape in Europe, the UK and the US, B4B’s clients can be confident they have a partner with compliance front of mind.
The Future of B4B Payments
So, with B4B experiencing significant growth in Europe and the UK, and in the process of scaling its services in the US alongside its rigorous regulatory expertise, where does the BaaS company see its ceiling?
For Lawlor, there isn’t one. “We’re going to take over the world”, he jokes. “The goal is ultimately simple, though, to keep building out and be the leading BaaS provider in the industry.”
“That isn’t just for supporting fintech payments businesses but also corporates that require BaaS. And in the journey, we’ve gone on so far, we’ve nearly tripled our revenue and the number of employees.”
Lawlor says B4B Payments offerings are not just unique, and they are compelling. “We provide all the payment offerings that businesses could possibly need, and our approach allows them to embed these modules seamlessly. We have everything they need – the products, the experience, the services, the know-how and the ambition to support their growth. This should pique the interest of our stakeholders and potential clients.”
To get there, B4B Payments must keep proving itself, particularly in the US, Draper says.
“Compliance and regulation will always be a moving target. Operating a B2B model means we need to master US compliance; it will always be a challenge, but it’s one of the main reasons we’re in business.”
Indeed, Jennings believes the expertise of B4B will see them through on their mission to become “well-known in the US”.
“This is something we’re expecting now,” Jennings adds. “We’ve got very ambitious targets, and I’m very excited to review our progress this year to see how we’re getting on to meet those aims.”
“We’ve spent the last few years adding new products and services, and now it’s about making sure we offer these out to the fullest potential for our clients.”
Leveraging the latest technologies is what has helped deliver B4B into its position of promise today, and Swinton always has his eye out on where the next swathe of innovation can be applied to take B4B’s product suite to the next level.
“We’re starting to see AI, particularly Gen AI, used in the consumer payments space,” Swinton says. “Serving the corporate world, there is always a lag between consumer technologies and corporate technologies.
“But it’s here, and I think it will soon be inevitable Gen AI will be used in the B2B payments space. In the future, we’ll need a similar type of solution, based on Gen AI, to serve our corporate clients and meet their needs.”
“So, I’m looking forward to harnessing this technology and seeing what further efficiencies it will bring. For B4B, we must continue to investigate this space and be at the forefront when it comes to adapting payments with Gen AI capabilities.
“It’s so important we remain at the bleeding edge of fintech, and I’m very much looking forward to the opportunities continued technology innovation will offer us as we head into the future.”
Staying at the tip of fintech innovation is exactly what B4B is primed to do. After overcoming the significant challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, scaling in the US and joining the Banking Circle Group on its way to becoming a full-stack BaaS powerhouse, the first 18 years of B4B’s existence look set to be just the start of its journey into a technology-led future.
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