Lloyds and PayPoint Launch Payments Partnership for Small Businesses

British payments technology firm PayPoint is expanding its partnership with U.K. bank Lloyds.

The collaboration, announced Wednesday (Dec. 4), is designed to provide banking and payments services to roughly 60,000 U.K. small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), combining PayPoint and Handepay’s merchant network, and Lloyds’ merchant services.

“With this enhanced service range in place, PayPoint and Handepay can accelerate growth across their merchant estates, and deliver better tools, support and experience for their [small and medium enterprises] and retailer partners,” the companies said in a news release.

Among the benefits to SMBs using Handepay and PayPoint services are next day settlements, a faster onboarding experience, a dedicated app, and added customer data and insights. There’s also a new Handepay Merchant Mobile App for SMB owners, as well as the Handepay Loyalty Programme for merchants.

“Businesses, especially small ones, need simpler and quicker ways to get up and running with payments,” said Melinda Roylett, managing director for Lloyds Merchant Services, who noted that 20% of the U.K.’s small businesses bank with Lloyds. “That’s why Lloyds Merchant Services has made huge investments in flexible yet robust POS and processing tech, partnerships, funding options and value-added services.”

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows the challenges facing SMBs, underscoring the need for these businesses to reexamine their payment processes and think about using modern solutions that seamlessly integrate into their systems.

“Business-to-business (B2B) payments are essential to the economy, yet they often lag behind peer-to-peer (P2P) and consumer-to-business (C2B) models in terms of usability and security,” PYMNTS wrote in October. “Sixty-four percent of companies face delayed payments, with suppliers typically waiting an average of 43 days to receive funds.”

This delay leads to 80% of potential discounts going unclaimed, underlining the inefficiencies that can have a major impact on cash flow and supplier relationships.

Additional research into the payment pain points facing SMBs shows that more than a third of SMB receivers said they lack options from payers.

When given a choice, these businesses tend to pick instant payments, with roughly 40% of receivers saying they receive ad hoc (nonrecurring) payments “most often” through instant means, compared to 20% last year.

“The instant payments embrace comes out most strongly in what PYMNTS termed ‘digitally forward’ firms — operating in, say, the gig economy or gaming industries — which encompasses a third of respondents,” that report said. “That leaves two-thirds of companies in the less-digitally-inclined verticals, and those companies use instant payments to get their ad hoc funds relatively less, at 27% of the time.”

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