Verto, Banking Circle Partner on International Payments

The B2B cross-border payments provider VertoFX is working with Banking Circle to streamline international payments.

Banking Circle announced the project on it website this week, saying Verto would use the bank’s virtual IBAN solution and local payment rails to alleviate the pain of complex pay-ins and cross border payments.

“Our clients told us that pay-ins to their multi-currency wallets were difficult and inconvenient,” explained Ola Oyetayo, co-founder and CEO of Verto. “As a company we have always sought to make cross border payments simple, so it was clear that we needed a better solution. Using Banking Circle Virtual IBAN and allowing Banking Circle to make and collect payments on behalf of our clients directly addresses the pain points.”

Read more: B2B Payments Platform Verto Raises $10M

With this shift, accounts and payments will now be in the client’s name and receive individual International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs). Oyetayo says this will simplify reconciliation, make clients more confident and pave the way for easier international transactions.

“Verto shares our ambition to make cross-border payments accessible to all businesses, empowering them to reach their global potential and increase opportunities for international trade,” said Banking Circle CEO Laust Bertelsen.

“Traditional cross border payments are expensive and slow, thanks to the multitude of stakeholders involved in the correspondent banking network,” Bertelsen said. “Using Banking Circle’s local payment rails instead sidesteps this issue and delivers cross border payments that feel local, without a physical presence or correspondent banking relationship in other geographies.”

Banking Circle says its virtual IBAN gives financial institutions the ability to issue multi currency IBANs in more than one jurisdiction. This lets merchants make and accept cross-border payments in a variety of currencies, something traditional banks would have trouble with due to risk and limits on their systems.

See also: Banking Circle Aims For $500M Funding Round

Based in Luxembourg, with offices in the U.K., Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, Banking Circle helps banks and businesses process international payments in 25 currencies. In August, the company announced plans to raise around $500 million in funding, with the hope of pushing its valuation to $5.9 billion, or 5 billion euros.

Verto, based in London and Nigeria, recently wrapped a funding round of its own, with $10 million Series A designed to help it expand the currencies offered on its platform.