Crown Agents Bank, a UK regulated provider of wholesale FX and cross-border payment services, has launched EMpower Payments, a payments gateway for cross-border transactions into emerging markets.
According to Crown Agents Bank, the API-enabled solution allows its customers, including governments, international development organisations, and financial services businesses – to send cross-border payments in more than 70 currencies. The payments made via EMpower Payments can be monitored through real-time transaction statuses, according to the company.
James Cope, SVP Payments Product Lead at Crown Agents Bank stated:
“Cross-border payments into frontier and emerging markets are something all our customers want to offer their corporate clients; they have traditionally been seen as inefficient due to high fees, slow delivery times and a lack of transparency. Using cutting edge technology and a network of carefully cultivated partnerships, we are able to offer payments into frontier markets that are highly automated. Real-time transaction statuses, flexible reporting, and 24/7 support means our customers can have clarity that their money is going directly to its destination.”
Crown Agents Bank believes that expanding trade is an opportunity to reach a large untapped market, outdated perceptions of the difficulty of trading with African countries can be an obstacle. Cope recently said that “Africa is open for business and by partnering with experts who have the relationships and local knowledge to do business in the region, UK companies can reap the rewards of working with a fast growing, ambitious economy.”
“We know cross-border payments into frontier and emerging markets are something our customers want to offer their corporate clients, but they have traditionally been seen as challenging due to high fees, slow delivery times and a lack of transparency. Using cutting edge technology and a network of carefully cultivated partnerships, we are able to offer payments into frontier markets that are highly automated. Real-time transaction statuses, flexible reporting, and 24/7 support mean our customers can have clarity that their money is going directly to its destination,” said Cope.
Crown is an FCA and PRA-regulated bank. In 2019, CABIM, the parent company of Crown, acquired Segovia, a US-based payments firm. In a release, Crown Agents Bank said the purchase would enable it to extend its payment network, including mobile money, and integrate Segovia’s payments infrastructure with Crown Agents Bank’s FX capabilities.