Cornerstone To Buy FXPress, Boost SMB Payment Services

Cornerstone Brands plans to acquire payments processor FXPress in a deal that also includes a sale of the existing Cornerstone business and restructuring of capital, according to a press release emailed to PYMNTS.

FXPress provides advanced payment systems through a Platform-as-a-Service agreement. The new company strategy will involve building a business off providing international payment services for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) through both “organic and inorganic growth,” the release stated.

According to the release, the company directors want to capitalize on what they see as an opportunity to develop a wider range of products and services. They want to allow customers to maintain their own multicurrency electronic payment accounts, attracting larger SMB customers and growing in-house sales capacity.

Cornerstone’s directors were “excited by FXPress’ strategy to develop its business and be a true disrupter in the market by enabling [SMBs] to make efficiency gains in the way they conduct international payments.”

“The global payments landscape is in a state of fundamental transformation, with immense opportunities for technology-led businesses such as FXPress,” the release stated.

The deal went down for over 99 percent of shares cast in favor of it, the release stated. In addition, Cornerstone Brands’ existing business will be sold to Oliver Bridge and Spencer Hill after the FXPress acquisition is complete. Existing Cornerstone shareholders will receive funds if another sale occurs within the next few years.

In related news, FXPress CEO Jason Conibear said in a PYMNTS interview that the pandemic has made the global B2B payments world more difficult, and solutions would have to be more comprehensive than just innovating payment rails.

He said the role of payments for international trade would encompass a holistic approach, involving paying attention to things like multicurrency transactions and integration. Application programming interfaces (APIs) could be used to help businesses perform a range of solutions from sending and receiving foreign payments to understanding financial positions via connections with accounting and other such portals.