Alibaba Group has signed up with Banking Circle, the global scale financial utility, to utilise Banking Circle’s ground-breaking infrastructure and global network to facilitate its business. It was announced in June that global investment firm EQT (through the EQT VIII and EQT Ventures funds), together with company founders and other co-investors entered into an agreement to acquire Saxo Payments Banking Circle from Saxo Bank A/S and other minority owners. The partnership with Alibaba Group underlines the effectiveness of Banking Circle as a next-generation provider of mission-critical infrastructure for online cross-border payments.
On the announcement of the partnership, Paul Li, Head of Payments, Alibaba Group commented: “We are delighted to partner with Banking Circle. Its global network and disruptive technology makes it an ideal partner for Alibaba’s future ambitions, building on the global infrastructure and technology platform that underpins the financial utility.”
Established in 1999, Alibaba Group is a leader in ecommerce with a mission to make it easy to do business anywhere. Alibaba Group enables businesses to transform the way they market, sell, operate and improve their efficiencies. Alibaba Group also provides the technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help merchants, brands and other businesses to leverage the power of new technology to engage with their users and customers and operate in a more efficient way.
Domiciled in the European Union, Banking Circle specialises in providing global payment account transactions and foreign exchange services to financial institutions, including FinTechs, banks, acquirers, payment service providers, FX brokers, money transfer businesses, e-wallets, and alternative payment providers.
Anders la Cour, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Banking Circle added: “Payment providers who join Banking Circle can offer ‘local’ cross border payments, with low fees, good FX rates and fast transfer times. It’s a cohesive solution – there’s no differentiation between local and cross border payments. All payments occur quickly, at low cost. Payments are simply payments.”