Payments are hot right now. They increasingly appear with other services to enhance a proposition. We explain how BIN sponsorship short-cuts getting into payments, avoiding the hassle of becoming a bank or payment company.
Payments now aren’t just in shops and on market squares where people have traded for centuries. But also online, on social media and video games – everywhere that people come together.
This speaks to the fundamental need to pay and be paid, which will always exist. However, payments have gone from being an exchange of value to being valuable in themselves. The stock markets agree. Paytechs Marqeta and Wise both went public last year, with a valuation at the point of IPO of $16bn and $11bn respectively.
But away from Wall Street and the Square Mile, businesses are realising that payments are valuable for building closer customer relationships. They’re a way to expand services, differentiate their brands and switch on new revenue streams.
Take Uber, for example. The company describes itself as a ride-sharing platform. Yet payment is an embedded part of the proposition. It’s there in the frictionless payment experience at the end of a ride. And there again in how quickly Uber pays its drivers.
When passengers and drivers choose Uber. And when customer loyalty is based on trust and simplicity of service; a seamless payment experience is key to brand growth.
Need card issuing services to support your business?
What about instant hassle-free joint accounts and digital kitties? Paying for online purchases with cash? A way to buy now and pay later? Delivering cash to mobile devices for immediate collection at participating ATMs?
These are just some of the everyday problems our clients solve. But getting into payments is easier said than done.
Becoming a bank may be an option. But do you really want to wrestle with capital adequacy requirements, Basel III and MiFID 2? Plus, the business of a bank is accepting deposits and making loans, which may not be your core business.
Another option may be to become a payment company. But applying for an electronic money licence, joining Mastercard, Visa, Discover, Amex and so on is not without red tape and compliance requirements.
The quicker, more convenient way to get into payments may be card issuance via a BIN sponsor. Your sponsor joins the card schemes as a member and enables you to move value across the network via credit, debit, prepaid or commercial cards.
Why BIN sponsorship?
Financial services is a complex, regulated industry. Complex things are often time-consuming to unpick and understand. And time is a luxury for anyone trying to hit a launch date.
While there’s no such thing as a simple payment system, at Monavate we really don’t think that things need to be so hard. We aim to simplify complexity.
We do this expertise, partnerships and bespoke tech. We find that this saves time, money, effort, trial, error – the list goes on.
If you’re interested in card issuance via one provider, on one contract, with a single point of contact and point of access, then talk to us today.
