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“B4B is a key voice in the payments landscape, and they will continue to play a critical role in helping shape the future of payments.”
— Brian Tate, IPA President and CEO
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Tag: B4B News
B4B Payments provides smart and flexible payment processing solutions, for accounting and finance teams. Manage expenses, payroll, payments, and employee and client rewards using prepaid business Mastercard and Visa contactless debit cards.
At the 2023 Payments Innovation Forum Summit, recently held in London, Brian Lawlor, CCO of B4B Payments, shared valuable insights and extensive experiences on ‘The Need for BaaS in the Payments Ecosystem.’ During Brian’s presentation, he addressed the six key challenges of traditional payments that B4B Payments is addressing with Banking-as-a-Service solutions.
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B4B Payments, a Banking Circle Group company, will demonstrate its robust and scalable corporate card issuing and payments platform for the first time publicly to US companies at this year’s Money 20/20 event in Las Vegas, NV.
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B4B Payments has joined the Mastercard Fintech Express Programme, which supports innovative financial technology firms
Jason Lane, EVP, Market Development, Mastercard Europe commented: “We are pleased to welcome B4B Payments into the Fintech Express Programme. We look forward to further developing our relationship and are confident that they will continue to benefit from our extensive network and resources.”
Check out further information here.
B4B Payments announces new collaboration with Visa in the U.S.
Digital payments company, B4B Payments, today announced a strategic collaboration with Visa in the United States. B4B Payments will leverage Visa’s proven scale, security and reach to grow in the U.S. market. The B4B payments program will be delivered on Visa Debit Cards and supported by Visa DPS for issuer processing services.
The move will see B4B Payments’ technology aiming to help companies facing challenges with outdated payment methods in the United States. Due to open its first U.S. office in Boston, Massachusetts in August 2020, this announcement marks a significant leap forward in capability for B4B Payments.
“Now is the right time for us to unleash our platform into the U.S. market and help companies free up their time from the sometimes-antiquated expense management processes in the same way we have in Europe. We are looking forward to achieving similar levels of success by collaborating with Visa to take our product forward.”
Paul Swinton Founder and CEO of B4B Payments
B4B Payments’ technology helps to streamline the payment process for organisations who had previously found difficulty managing issues that can be associated with traditional payment methods, such as employee expenses or third-party payments. The platform is entirely digital and can be used in conjunction with the B4B app to enable updates on the go, featuring automatic notifications of funds received, reminders for receipt input and freeing up the business to spend more time on other tasks. The technology allows for increased visibility and control over the expense payments that a company makes to its staff and suppliers. B4B Payments is particularly useful for agile digital companies without the resources to employ full-time administrative staff, or who employ gig economy workers and contractors, because payments can be tracked and made as needed without needing a central interface.
Kieran Draper, Head of B4B Payments (USA) Inc, comments, “We’re delighted to be able to announce the company’s expansion into the U.S. market, which has been a corporate ambition of ours for some time, and to transform the sometimes challenging process of business payments alongside a global brand like Visa is a great privilege.”
Our platform assists U.S. businesses facing challenges with purchasing and payments, in a world where the gig economy is growing massively. We hope to provide these businesses with a swift, secure and easy-to-use platform that gives them more time and effort to focus on their trade, rather than their administration.”
“We have successfully worked with fintech organizations across the globe to provide a clear path towards getting to market faster and more efficiently, leveraging Visa’s scale, security, reach and strong network of partners. By working with B4B payments on their expansion to the U.S., we are continuing our support for fintechs, with the goal of accelerating the growth of the payments industry and creating better ways to help move money everywhere.”
Terry Angelos, SVP and Global Head of Fintech, Visa
B4B Payments announces this exciting news off the back of an excellent 2019, which saw the company win Best Prepaid Product of the Year at the 2019 European Card & Payments Awards. With over 1,000 customers in Europe alone and several award wins under their belt, this expansion into North America represents a significant milestone for the company.
LHV, the financial and payment services provider, is pleased to announce award-winning corporate prepaid payments solution provider, B4B Payments (‘B4B’), has become the latest FinTech customer of its London branch.
Since the launch of its London office in 2018, LHV has now quadrupled its client base to 120. Customers are predominantly financial institutions and FinTechs, who have been drawn to LHV’s value proposition, its ‘one stop shop’ offering that covers large scale banking service requirements, and its partnership model whereby LHV works closely with clients to develop custom made solutions that satisfy their individual requirements.
FCA authorised B4B will gain access to LHV’s full service offering including state of the art payment infrastructure and real time Euro and Sterling payments capability via Single Euro Payment Area (‘SEPA’) Instant and Faster Payments schemes respectively. In addition, B4B will benefit from access to LHV’s Application Programming Interface ‘LHV Connect’, which offers a wide range of services, including GBP and EUR safeguarding accounts, Virtual IBANs, currency exchange, liquidity services and where appropriate financing.
B4B Payments, veteran prepaid payment provider in Europe, is going global, expanding operations in North America and opening its first US offices in Boston. The platform enables organisations of any size to manage expenses, simplify payroll, reimbursements, and offer employee rewards and incentives.
As a leader in Fintech and prepaid business payments for over 14 years and voted the Best Prepaid Product of the Year in 2019, B4B Payments continues to offer innovative, flexible, and time-saving solutions that streamline and eliminate antiquated finance and accounting processes.
Andres Kitter, Head of LHV’s UK Operations, said, “Our decision to establish a presence in London post the 2016 Brexit referendum was to increase our presence in what remains one of the leading financial and fintech sectors in the world and in the process attract customers of the calibre of B4B. The company has been operating for fifteen years, which shows significant experience and market resilience and we are delighted that two profitable organisations are partnering for continued growth.
“In a little over two years, we have not only quadrupled customer numbers in our London office to 120 but also significantly diversified our client base so that the companies we serve range from payment service providers to FX brokers and from startups to established financial institutions and unicorns. All our clients are subjected to comprehensive onboarding procedures and due diligence and encouragingly we have a growing pipeline of potential customers currently undergoing this process. I am therefore confident that the momentum behind our London operations will be maintained going forward.”
B4B CEO and co-founder, Paul Swinton said, “We looked at a number of providers to provide safeguarding and virtual IBAN capabilities. LHV came out on top due to their flexibility, functionality and value proposition. We migrated our clients easily onto the platform and we are very happy with the service to date. LHV will also be able to support us when we establish our European operation later this month with a one stop solution.”
This situation has been marked as resolved.
Update 30/06/2020
13:00 BST
As of 12:15, all card spending has now commenced and all systems are operational. There may be sporadic card declines as the card data spreads through the Mastercard® network, however this will be temporary as some merchants and ATMs may not update in real time.
Our apologies again for the delay.
11:00 BST
Further to our earlier update below, we are still awaiting word from Mastercard® on when the cards will be re-enabled on their network. At the moment, cards are only capable of being loaded.
Like us, we know our customers are eager to get things back on track. Unfortunately, whilst B4B Payments and Bread4Scrap were ready, some of our partners were not. Please be assured our team are on the case and are seeking clarity on when this will be done and card spend transactions can resume.
Our apologies for this further delay. We will update you as soon as we know anything further.
08:00 BST
And… we’re back!
We’re extremely pleased to report that the FCA have now given written consent for Wirecard UK to resume regulated activity meaning that we can get services up and running. This confirms that all finances have been examined and it has been recognised by the FCA that Wirecard in the UK has been operating in accordance with its regulations and all funds are intact as expected. There are some continued conditions set by the FCA which should not impact further operations.
Please view the full FCA article here
The restriction on activities were lifted from 00.01 on 30 June 2020 and services are being restored.
Cards have now been reactivated.
Company floats may again be loaded.
Cards may be loaded as before.
We have been advised that all cards will be able to spend later this morning. If this changes we will let you know. It is possible that not all merchants (shops and ATMs) will be enabled straight away as the card data has to be re-populated through the Mastercard® network. Please note, that if cards don’t work at a particular merchant, this should just be temporary and they’ll be re-enabled soon.
This is great news but we want to assure you that we take this situation and the impact even just a few days outage has had on our customers and cardholders very seriously and we will continue to look at ensuring there is further resilience built into our operations.
Please expect further updates from us on both the Wirecard restart and future developments we are working on. On behalf of the entire B4B Payments team we thank you for your patience and understanding
Update 29/06/2020
Following the FCA’s decision on Friday to freeze all activity on accounts and cards issued by Wirecard Card Solutions Ltd, we would like to first and foremost, reassure our clients and cardholders that your money is safe.*
This morning, the FCA have updated their messaging to reflect that progress is being made by Wirecard UK, however cards remain frozen.
For the most up to date information, we urge our clients to refer to the FCA website.
We are hopeful that the progress being made will mean your accounts and cards will be operational again within the coming day(s).
With regards to future plans, B4B Payments has been planning an updated long-term solution for when the UK leaves the EU at the end of the year. We can confirm we have accelerated these plans. Our goal is to continue providing a stable platform that will allow our customers uninterrupted use of their cards and funds moving forward (UK and non-UK). At this time, we are unable to give definitive timelines – but will have an update for you in the coming weeks.
We understand that this disruption has caused an unprecedented amount of difficulties within your organisation and are doing everything we can to ensure operations get back on track as soon as possible.
On behalf of the team at B4B Payments, we would like to thank all of our clients for their immense patience and understanding.
*Please note, all B4B Payments and Bread4Scrap client funds are subject to UK safeguarding rules as governed by the UK Financial Conduct Authority
Customer and Cardholder FAQ
Update 26/06/2020
B4B Payments have been informed by the FCA that all cardholder activity on cards issued by Wirecard Card Solutions have been temporarily frozen until further notice.
In the short term, this means that effective immediately cards may not currently be used for either load or spend transactions. We are aware that the FCA and Wirecard are working productively to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and it is our hope that this will be resolved early next week.
On behalf of the team at B4B Payments, we would like to apologise to all our clients and cardholders for the disruption this may cause and are doing everything we can to ensure operations get back on track as soon as possible. At this time, we would suggest not making any further float loads until we have spoken further with the FCA about next steps.
We would remind and reassure you that all funds are safeguarded under FCA rules. Please see our previous message below with regards to safeguarding.
Update 18/06/20
You may have seen recent press coverage regarding Wirecard AG the German payments company.
We would like to make our clients aware of some facts as it relates to us and you. In Europe, B4B Payments prepaid cards are issued by Wirecard Card Solutions Ltd (WDCS) who are regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an E-Money Issuer (ref 90051).
Whilst WDCS is ultimately owned by Wirecard AG, it does not rely on Wirecard AG for liquidity, and is a profitable entity in its own right and is self sustaining. WDCS holds its own regulatory licenses and scheme memberships and third-party banking relationships.
We would like to remind and reassure you that both we, Payment Card Solutions (UK) Ltd t/a B4B Payments (B4B) and WDCS are regulated by the FCA and are required to take measures to ensure our customers money is protected as follows:
Safeguarding of Funds
B4B holds a commercial bin sponsorship agreement with WDCS to allow it to offer prepaid card programs to its customers and to operate and manage its client relationships with oversight from WDCS.
Both the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 have the principle of “safeguarding” of client funds and require safeguarding measures to be implemented by the authorised firm to protect customer’s funds.
The safeguarding options are either:
• Immediate segregation of the relevant funds received in exchange for e-money or payment services and placing them into an account held by an authorised credit institution
• Relevant funds are covered by an insurance policy or guarantee from a UK or EEA authorised insurer.
Both WDCS and B4B have taken the appropriate step of safeguarding its clients’ funds by segregation and placing them in a protected ‘Client Funds Bank Account’ held with a UK or European based bank. At the current time, these banks include Barclays Bank and ClearBank as well as HSBC and LHV Bank (in Europe).
The effects of this are that, in the unlikely event that WDCS or B4B becomes insolvent, funds that have been loaded to a prepaid card or placed on a payment account, and which have arrived with and been deposited into the client funds account, are protected against the claims made by creditors. Cardholders and Clients can therefore be assured that no financial loss will be experienced by them should such a situation occur.
As soon as we have more information, we will share those updates on this page.
B4B Payments is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority as an Authorised Payment Institution under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (Firm No. 777613)
Using specially designed prepaid cards, Migrant Help has been able to support and protect hundreds of people.
For Migrant Help, finding a cash solution that suited their organisational mission and practical limitations was a must. In their work, assisting victims of modern slavery and human trafficking, being able to provide ways to aid recovery is paramount. Money was one of the biggest hurdles in the process since displaced or exploited individuals often don’t have the facilities to open a typical bank account.
With that problem in mind, B4B Payments was the ideal partner. Though in the past the charity was required to make hand-to-hand payments of cash, this was high-risk and not appropriate in all circumstances. As such, a prepaid MasterCard was the perfect alternative – offering all the benefits of a cash-free system without requiring the paperwork and process of an individual bank account.
Using specially designed prepaid cards, Migrant Help has been able to support and protect hundreds of people looking to better their lives through the charity. Helping those that need it the most means providing that additional degree of independence over their own lives. B4B Payments offers that perfect middle ground between formal financial support and cash-in-hand, helping at-risk individuals to get on with their lives and reach more positive outcomes.
What made B4B Payments the ideal option for Migrant Help?
“We have found this payment solution very simple and easy to use, the system is user friendly and we’ve found the B4B staff to be very supportive and responsive whenever we’ve had to escalate an issue. This has made a real resource and efficiency saving for our organisation. The Solution has been empowering for our clients who are able to manage their own money for the first time, made the process significantly quicker and less time consuming for staff.” Rabiya Ravat, Deputy Director of National Operations
Now, Migrant Help uses B4B prepaid cards as their primary payment method across the broad spectrum of individuals they support. As a far more suitable alternative to cash, prepaid cards have reduced administrative strain and cost overall – which is a must for running a charity long-term as efficiently as possible. An unexpected, but welcome positive has been the reduction in travel time and transport cost involved in face-to-face payments.
Once an individual working with the charity is set up with their own B4B card, supplied by the charity, there’s no need for any additional meetings for top-ups or allotted money. Instead, the whole process can be fulfilled digitally – benefitting both workers within the Migrant Help offices and the people they serve. By reducing risk, streamlining processes and modernising the support they offer, the charity is better placed than ever to increase the number of people they can help each year.
What has become recently apparent is how effective the use of B4B Payment’s prepaid cards are in the current world climate. At the height of COVID-19, the use of cards of cash handling meant the additional protection needed to keep staff and clients safe was already in place. No need to search for a quick and easy solution, thanks to B4B’s prepaid cards already being firmly established into Migrant Help’s ongoing processes.
Ease of use, Practicality, and Functionality
Migrant Help have now achieved the best possible system for supporting victims of exploitation and modern slavery. By choosing to work with the B4B Payments team, they’ve created a solution that not only works – but benefits both recipients and staff at the same time. Modernisation is vital for any charity to continue to succeed, and Migrant Help has undoubtedly got that box ticked by making a move from a cash-only process to one that can be done with far less face-to-face time.
At B4B Payments, we’ve designed our payment solution to be as straightforward as it is innovative. That means reduced risk, enhanced payment processes and visible results every time. For charities like Migrant Help, our prepaid cards offer a particular solution – but the benefit of choosing such a versatile platform is the fact it can be expanded to many other areas, from payroll to rewards, general payments to charitable exercises.
“When the wind of change blows, some build walls, others build windmills.” Chinese proverb.
Do you know who’s powering along during the Covid-19 ‘crisis’? Fintech company B4B Payments is, and here’s how:
Thursday evening; a dreaded text
B4B CEO Paul Swinton was notified that one of his team had been exposed to the Coronavirus. Fortunately, the company had a Crisis Plan in place. One they’d wisely updated when Covid-19 first hit the headlines. Advance preparations included making sure all the team had access to well-configured technology designed for remote working. Including securely held systems on the Cloud. An email had already been sent to clients and other contacts saying B4B Payments was ready and well prepared to keep operational if the worst did happen. So, B4B was already equipped to offer ‘Business as Usual’ when the virus got too close.
Thursday evening part 2; so it begins
With a click, Paul activated well-considered protocols. All staff were told to start working from home with immediate effect. The Tech team responded by setting up a Whatsapp group to provide them with support and advice, and a way to ask for help.
Friday; getting things into perspective
By 9 am the whole company was self-isolated at home, ready for action and online. They were also displaying their strong sense of unity and community in this challenging time. Paul Swinton, B4B Payments CEO said: “Most importantly, robust steps had been taken to control the potential spread of the virus and to protect our valued staff members and their families. Our second priority that day was to underpin services offered to clients.”
One week later; windmills all working
The team, using a selection of tools including Slack, Trello, internal VOIP telephony, and Signal encrypted chat software is now a true ‘digital workplace’, connected online and powering along as efficiently and effectively as ever. That’s been achieved without compromising any of the comradery and team spirit that makes B4B Payments a first-class employer. Instead of banter around the coffee machine, the team now communicate, collaborate and just ‘chat’ in the virtual realm. Clearly, fully adhering to the self-isolation and social distancing advice from the Government and NHS. All proving the power of preparation, positive thinking and being agile.
Which brings us to another insightful quote: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin
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