BC Payments, the licensed subsidiary of Banking Circle Group, the tech-led payments business, has officially opened its doors for the first time in Australia; aiming to provide payment solutions to Australian fintechs, payment businesses and banks.
BC Payments plans to help local fintechs overcome barriers to non-domestic growth. At the centre of these barriers is the current de-risking in the B2B payments space by local incumbents. High-growth, compliant fintechs have often been caught in the crossfire, unable to find a clearing, settlement and cross-border payments partner.
Banking Circle SA, BC Payments’ parent company, already serves over 250 financial institutions globally and is settling more than 10 per cent of Europe’s B2C e-commerce flow.
BC Payments has appointed Piers Cracknell as head of Australia. He joins from his previous role as director of strategic initiatives at National Australia Bank (NAB), bringing over 20 years of payments experience.
Free from the inflexible legacy systems of incumbents, BC Payments will focus on building new, solutions to meet the needs of local fintechs. By reducing the cost and increasing the speed of non-domestic payments, Australian fintechs should also be able to extend their geographic reach and customer propositions more efficiently and cost-effectively.
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Piers Cracknell, head of Australia at BC Payments, commented: “Having witnessed first-hand the frustration of Australian fintechs losing access to global payment solutions, I’m excited to now be part of the solution.
“BC Payments’ offering will be delivered utilising the scale and infrastructure of the broader Banking Circle Group, which is already meeting the needs of some of the world’s largest payments businesses and banks.
“For Australia’s banks, we can help reduce the correspondent banking fees they have to absorb and provide more payment rail options with which to process their customers’ international payments. For marketplaces, we can also enable overseas collections and payments for local merchants.
“As private and government stakeholders push to grow the size of the fintech market here in Australia, there has never been a more important time to get these companies to market and keep them growing. For those fintechs looking for a global payments provider to expand into the EU and UK markets, we have the expertise to help.”
Mishal Ruparel, chief revenue officer of Banking Circle, also discussed how BC Payments could support firms across Australia: “Led by our tech-first approach, Banking Circle is driving the evolution of global payments infrastructure, which goes to the heart of financial inclusion.
“We’re also excited that Piers will be heading BC Payments. His experience and strong network, coupled with our international track record, will be invaluable in helping Australian firms harness the benefits of our payment capabilities.”
