Banking Circle gives payments businesses a competitive advantage to support sellers targeting the Polish market

By Joy Dumasia

Banking Circle, the tech-first Payments Bank focused on enabling fast and low-cost payments, have expanded its payment provision for Poland with the addition of local Polish Virtual IBAN accounts for collections. This means PSPs supporting businesses serving the Polish market can now provide unlimited Virtual IBANs (International Bank Account Numbers), where payments are collected locally in Poland for their underlying customers. The reconciliation, speed and cost advantages are significant.

Laust Bertelsen, Chief Executive Officer, Banking Circle, said: “Banking Circle is committed to delivering cross-border payments that feel like local payments, and this latest addition is an important step as we grow our super-correspondent banking network, giving Payments businesses the ability to extend their collections offering for the Polish market.”

Through Banking Circle, Payments businesses can provide their underlying customers with unique, addressable Virtual IBANs to collect funds in the buyer’s currency, in the underlying merchant’s name. This means sellers can collect their proceeds in local currencies and take control of the foreign exchange conversions. 

Now, with the addition of the Polish Zloty to this facility, Banking Circle is helping Payments businesses extend their customer proposition. Virtual IBANs can be created quickly and in bulk, allowing easy customer allocation. The same account number can have up to 25 currencies linked, enabling local settlement and payment capability, including FPS and SEPA and local Polish Zloty (PLN) collections. 

For Marketplace sellers, PSPs can allocate as many Virtual IBANs as the merchant requires, and the merchant is provided with fully addressable and named Virtual accounts for PLN collections. Account and card top-up payments can also be made by card issuers in the Polish Zloty and for card and Alternative Payment Method (APM) funds where funds are being settled from scheme to acquirer and for the subsequent pay-out to merchants. Full reconciliation reporting is available via the Banking Circle web platform and the REST API (which also enables FX and payment capability) or through the SWIFT network. 

Laust Bertelsen added: “This new solution gives Payments businesses the ability to extend their customer proposition where they are servicing businesses targeting the Polish market. Our locally formatted VIBANs provide PSPs with a simple, easy and unique payment and reconciliation solution for them and their merchants, removing barriers to international trade and empowering expansion across borders.”