Banking Circle Broadens SMB Lending Reach With Cardstream

Banking Circle, a company that provides global B2B payment solutions, is collaborating with payment processing company Cardstream to deploy a small business lending solution.

In an announcement on Banking Circle’s website, the company said it will work with Cardstream to create a joint white-label lending tool that aims to link Cardstream’s 200 payment service partners, servicing SMBs with a white-labeled small business lending tool.

It is an expansion of Banking Circle’s small business lending operations, which launched last year with the rollout of Banking Circle Lending and Banking Circle Instant Settlement.

In a statement, Cardstream CEO Adam Sharpe explained that Cardstream’s partners will use the payments data of their small business customers to facilitate funding.

“Cardstream’s partners enjoy strong and trusted relationships with the merchants to whom they provide our white-labeled payment gateway service under their own trusted brand,” he stated. “Now, with this new service deployed with Banking Circle, they can offer loans to any of their merchant customer businesses based on their online payments revenue.”

“Banking Circle is committed to providing partner infrastructure as a real alternative to traditional banking solutions, with the aim of increasing financial inclusion,” added Banking Circle Co-founder and CEO Anders la Cour in another statement. “As part of this, we wanted to deliver a more accessible lending solution for businesses in need of a financial boost. Now, through our partnership with Cardstream, more than 200 payment providers have access to our unique lending solution, meaning tens of thousands of small businesses can access cash they need to expand, restock or simply survive a quiet period.

“In the past,” he continued, “these SMEs would have been unable to borrow the vital funds, which could have meant letting employees go or even business failure.”

Earlier this year, corporate travel payments optimization firm Ixaris announced a partnership with Banking Circle to streamline cross-border payments in the global travel market using Banking Circle’s Virtual IBAN technology.