The U.K.-based FinTech Equals stated in a news statement announcing the acquisition that the purchase of the open banking payments startup will allow it to provide its merchant clients the capacity to accept account-to-account (A2A) payments.
Equals will be able to make machine-learning-informed risk management choices for business-to-business (B2B) clients utilizing Roqqett’s data capabilities, according to the company.
The deal, worth £2.25 million ($2.69 million), is subject to Financial Conduct Authority approval.
“The ability to give our corporate clients an alternate path to acquire payments from their B2B or B2C customers is the final piece of the puzzle in terms of Equals engagement in the whole payment lifecycle,” remarked Equals CEO Ian Strafford-Taylor.
“Roqqett has established a unique checkout experience for the fast-developing sector in open banking payments,” said Glenn Smith, CEO of Roqqett. This solution has been expanded with the inclusion of Equal’s IBAN capabilities and participation in the Faster Payments Scheme. The Roqqett team is excited to collaborate with Equals to realize the potential of both platforms as a result of this transaction.”
Acquiring open banking specialist firms is one option for payment service providers (PSPs) looking to add A2A payments into their offerings. Another example is strategic alliances.
Computop, for example, recently enabled A2A payments for its UK and EU merchants via a partnership with Token.
Even PSPs that already offer A2A payments can benefit from the right partnership, as Worldline did when it teamed up with Neonomics to expand the scope of its own open banking offering.
