Who Banking Circle is
Banking Circle started in 2013 as Saxo Payments, incubated by Saxo Group, and took its current name in 2017. In 2018 it was acquired by funds of the investment firm EQT, together with its founders. Banking Circle S.A. is a credit institution authorised in Luxembourg and supervised by the CSSF, with branches in several European countries.
It does not serve private individuals. Its clients are payment companies, banks, marketplaces and other businesses, most of them regulated financial institutions, which it gives accounts, virtual IBANs, payments and FX through its API or client portal. That is why it is one of the banking-as-a-service providers our Accounts & IBANs module connects to.
What it does in your platform
Accounts & IBANs
Issues the accounts and virtual IBANs you assign to your customers, named after them, while the customer relationship and the licence stay yours. Payments in and out run on local and instant rails such as SEPA, SEPA Instant and Faster Payments.
How the connection works
One connector in the Accounts & IBANs module talks to Banking Circle's REST API with standard OAuth2 tokens, and follows payments and events through its webhook notifications.
You onboard the customer
Your KYC runs in our KYC / AML module under your own licence, because the customer relationship is yours, not Banking Circle's.
A virtual IBAN is issued
The module asks Banking Circle for a virtual account named after the customer and gets its IBAN back, ready to share.
Money arrives
A transfer reaches the IBAN on SEPA or SEPA Instant, and Banking Circle notifies the module by webhook.
The ledger books it
The module matches the payment to the customer's virtual account and posts it to the ledger and the customer's statement within seconds.
Money goes out
Transfers out go through the same API, on the rail that fits the currency, and their status comes back by webhook.
Next to other providers
Banking Circle suits payment businesses that hold their own licence and want one bank for accounts in several currencies. The module talks to it through the same interface as every other banking partner, so the app, the ledger and the statements look the same.
Moving to another partner later leaves the app unchanged, though customers receive new IBANs under the new partner, a move we plan with you.
When Banking Circle fits best
A strong fit when
- You are a licensed payment or e-money institution that owns its customer relationships.
- You need virtual IBANs named after your customers, created one by one or in bulk.
- You collect and pay out in several currencies and want FX at the same bank.
Also worth a look
- A banking-as-a-service provider such as Swan or Treezor, if you do not hold a licence of your own.
- ClearBank or Modulr, for businesses that work mostly in sterling.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your Banking Circle account and contract in place, as the regulated business it works with.
The accounts
We set up the account structure with you: physical accounts, virtual IBANs per customer, and safeguarding accounts if your licence requires them.
The keys
The API credentials stay in your platform's secrets, never in your apps.
A full test run
The whole flow runs in Banking Circle's API sandbox first, from a new virtual IBAN to money in and out.
