The successful delivery of this new service is an “industry-first” under a new agency bank sponsored model. It gives Ebury’s customers access to a truly real-time payments experience, enabling them to move money between UK accounts in under ten seconds by connecting Ebury directly to the national payments infrastructure. Ebury is the first ever nonbank participant to join the Faster Payments Scheme.

By providing Ebury with its own dedicated and portable sort codes, the Form3 payments service ensures that every customer now has its own addressable account number (domestic and IBAN). This not only improves transparency for Ebury and its customers but also accelerates the movement of funds (Debits and Credits) in real-time. Outbound payments to suppliers can now be paid instantly and inbound payments for the initiation of a foreign exchange transactions will be executed immediately. This transformational payments capability is underpinned by an agency banking service sponsored by Barclays. The result is significantly improved customer satisfaction, working capital efficiency and improved management of cash flows for Ebury.

Form3’s managed technology service uses native-cloud technology, APIs and microservices to deliver a real-time payments processing platform and was recently recognised by the global research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan for Customer Value Leadership.

Juan Lobato, CEO and co- founder of Ebury, says: “Ebury is committed to providing exceptional customer service. We are therefore delighted to be partnering with Form3 whose innovative payments technology allows our customers to experience real-time UK Faster Payments. There is real momentum from regulators to allow non banks to access capabilities that would previously be limited to banks. Being able to deeply integrate with the Faster Payments Scheme means we can innovate on services and products for our customers in a very direct way. I am extremely proud that Ebury is now one of only a handful of financial institutions in the UK able to provide its customers with truly real-time services 24x7”.

Dan Roberts, Head of Transaction Banking Products & Services at Barclays, states “Barclays has a long history of firsts in delivering ground-breaking payment services to market and we are committed to helping our clients deliver the best possible end-user experience to their customers. Competition in the market is essential for the growth of the UK financial services sector and the collaboration with Form3 and Ebury demonstrates how we have worked together to successfully land this innovative real time payments service that will benefit Ebury and its customers.”

Michael Mueller, Chief Executive Officer at Form3, states: “We are delighted to be working with Ebury to provide them with the best possible access to the UK national payments infrastructure, enabling them to deliver powerful business propositions that truly benefit their customers. For too long, access to real-time payments has been limited to only a few banks. Form3’s mission is to simplify payment back office processing and in doing so ensure that direct access to real-time payments is economically viable for Banks or PSPs of all sizes. Opening up this new sponsored access route was only possible through strong collaboration between Ebury, Barclays and the Faster Payments Scheme and we are very grateful for the support that we have received from our great partners.”

Craig Tillotson, Chief Executive Officer of the Faster Payments Scheme: said “We are delighted to recognise Ebury as the first ever financial institution joining the Faster Payments Scheme under this new agency bank sponsored model. This represents a historic milestone in the evolution of our open access agenda and allows more financial institutions and PSP’s to directly participate in the scheme, fuelling competition and innovation.”