Orwell Group’s ipagoo becomes the first ever non-bank payment service provider to directly join the UK’s high value payment system, Chaps.
On August the 20th ipagoo llp, a fully owned subsidiary of Orwell Group, became the 33rd CHAPS direct participant and the first non-bank PSP to join the system. CHAPS is one of the largest high value payment systems in the world, settling in 2017 alone a staggering £84.1 trillion, equivalent to 93% of total sterling payment values.
This historic milestone crowns a stellar year for ipagoo, who in just 5 months has joined Faster Payments, BACS and CHAPS to become the first ever non-bank PSP to be a direct participant of the three main schemes in the UK.
ipagoo offers a unique set of services, around cash management and payments, to a large range of customers from individuals to corporates but most importantly it offers this capability over multiple countries at the same time. ipagoo is an IBAN issuer in the UK, France, Spain, Italy and is planning a rapid expansion in Germany, Portugal, Poland other European and American countries over the next few years. ipagoo offers these services primarily in white label to banks so that they can expand in other countries without the need to establish branches or subsidiaries in those countries. ipagoo has arguably the most advanced core banking technology in the world, designed for extreme scalability, flexibility and resilience so that it can service hundreds of millions of clients from its client banks.
Joining CHAPS means, for ipagoo in the UK, its independence from established clearing banks and also provides ipagoo with the full control it requires to properly operate its payment services in view of the kind of clients it serves.
Carlos Sanchez, Orwell’s CEO commented: “We are extremely glad to have successfully completed this key milestone for our company and also honoured to be the first ever non-bank PSP to have joined CHAPS as a direct participant. This achievement places ipagoo at a level playing field with established large clearing banks in terms of access to high value payments on the one hand, but also, it allows ipagoo to confidently address the market with its unparalleled services and capabilities in full independence.”