Financial infrastructure provider, Banking Circle has announced its latest attempts to tackle the compliance and reconciliation issues often faced in global B2B payments with its new Payments on Behalf of (POBO) and Collections on Behalf of (COBO) solutions.
The new Banking Circle solutions seeks to address these pain points by enabling financial institutions to offer immediate visibility of the sender’s details when processing B2B payments and to collect funds locally into accounts in the underlying customer’s name.
Anders la Cour, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Banking Circle commented: “Existing solutions do not provide institutions with true unique IBANs, with payments often still received in the name of the payments business or bank rather than in the name of the payer. And this lack of payments ownership can lead to reconciliation issues which, in turn, can delay settlement times, thereby impacting on cashflow.
“In response, we have built a solution that allows banks and payments businesses to give their customers access to transparent, local payments and collections across borders, without the need for a physical presence or a relationship with a correspondent bank in that region. It was important that our new solution allowed providers to comply with complex payments regulation without Banking Circle taking ownership of the relationship.
“As a result, the financial institution remains in control of the relationship and customer experience, while Banking Circle provides the infrastructure for payments and collections to be made quickly and at low cost, regardless of international borders.”
Crucially, Banking Circle POBO and COBO mean payments businesses and banks can deliver this service without relying on the slow, costly and outdated correspondent banking network or investing in building their own solution.
Available globally through SWIFT, Faster Payments, CHAPS, SEPA and local clearing, the Banking Circle POBO and COBO solutions are currently available to payments businesses in 24 currencies and to banks in GBP and EUR, with more currencies and local capabilities planned.
Financial institutions can, therefore, manage payments on behalf of their customers, enabling funds to be sent out and received with full payment transparency, providing clarity and ease of reconciliation for beneficiaries. The service also allows payments businesses and banks to comply with Wire Transfer Regulations (WTR).
