Finseta: Six months to agency banking via SWIFT connectivity

To support its global expansion strategy and service-led business, Finseta decided to launch a new agency banking solution and increase automation in its payment processing activities.

It implemented AccessPay’s SWIFT connectivity solution, building a seamless integration between FXPal and Barclays Bank to enable end-to-end workflow automation, transparent pricing, automated reporting and analytics, and full back-office to bank connectivity.

The SWIFT integration was completed in just six months – an impressive achievement for a first-time SWIFT user – delivering cost savings, competitive advantage and a scalable architecture.

About Finseta

Finseta is a financial technology company specialising in international payments and multi-currency accounts. It is focused on facilitating cross-currency transactions and specialises in helping high net-worths, large institutions and corporates move their money across the globe in the easiest, quickest and most efficient possible. It is regulated and has offices in the UK, UAE and Canada.

The challenge

Finseta faced several challenges as it looked to scale its business and enhance the services offered to its clients. First, it required a reliable, unfailing and secure way to process cross-border payments to maintain client trust.

“In financial services, trust trumps everything. Agency banking via Barclays gives us a level of trust that’s unparalleled – clients know exactly where their money is safeguarded.”
Declan Jones, Chief Product Officer, Finseta

The solution used SWIFT connectivity to directly link the FXPal digital currency exchange platform to Finseta’s banking partners. Barclays, its agency banking provider, insisted on Finseta connecting via SWIFT.

Second, Finseta faced the dilemma of whether to build in-house or buy an off-the-shelf solution. Building an in-house solution could prove expensive and time-intensive, so it explored third-party options to accelerate development and time to market. Third-party solutions also reduce costs by providing pre-built functionalities, streamlined processes and specialist expertise.

“I considered build versus buy. Building in-house meant hiring a team, upskilling and dealing with SWIFT onboarding from scratch. That’s a huge opportunity cost – and time is money. Partnering with AccessPay meant we could realise the benefits earlier.”
Declan Jones, Chief Product Officer, Finseta

Third, Finseta needed a solution that could support its global expansion plans. It sought to scale operations and expand its footprint into markets beyond Canada, Dubai and the UK.

The overarching priority was to improve the speed and efficiency with which Finseta could meet client needs, especially in terms of payment processing and reconciliation.

The solution

Finseta chose AccessPay’s SWIFT agency banking service, a bank-agnostic platform to automate every type of international payment. AccessPay delivered a new customer service offering, which needed to be live as soon as possible to generate additional revenue for Finseta. It was a highly complex service delivered within the required timeframe.

To address Finseta’s requirements, AccessPay provided a tailored, integrated solution, including:

• End-to-end workflow automation: A seamless integration between FXPal and Barclays Bank using AccessPay’s SWIFT connectivity through Alliance Lite2 for Business Application service. Payment files are now automatically validated, processed and monitored in real time.
• Real-time visibility and reconciliation: Provides Finseta’s customers full transparency into payment status, along with the ability to instantly reconcile transactions against bank statements.
• Seamless customer experience: With AccessPay’s SWIFT capabilities, Finseta created a smooth, efficient experience for its clients, reducing manual errors and delays.

Finseta connects to AccessPay’s secure channel, which automatically ingests the payment files, validates and then delivers the files to Barclays via the SWIFT network.

In addition to the payment flow, Finseta was impressed by the message flow. Finseta receives a series of messages, such as confirmations, statement data and FX control messages, which it can pass onto its clients for both outbound and inbound payments, providing much needed transparency in the payment flow.

The right partner

Several factors influenced Finseta’s decision to partner with AccessPay. First was the ease and speed of implementation. The solution was quickly set up via Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) or application programming interface (API), which reduced onboarding time. It took only six months to implement.

“We spoke to several providers, but AccessPay had the SWIFT knowledge and the flexibility to connect in the way we needed.”
Declan Jones, Chief Product Officer, Finseta

The speed was also supported by a four-way collaborative effort, with Finseta, AccessPay, Barclays and SWIFT working closely together to hit the tight go-live deadlines.

Finseta understood that there is an opportunity cost associated with moving slowly, which compounds as time goes on. A quicker route to SWIFT connectivity allowed it to begin realising the benefits from being live with Barclays ahead of anything it could accomplish in-house.

In addition, Finseta was able to reallocate internal resources to higher-priority initiatives by outsourcing SWIFT connectivity to AccessPay, which had proven expertise and a strong track record with similar projects, offering assurance and deep knowledge of SWIFT integrations.

“I’d rather double down on what sets Finseta apart from our competitors rather than trying to be an expert in SWIFT, which is massively complex.”
Declan Jones, Chief Product Officer, Finseta

Enhanced user experience is the second reason Finseta selected AccessPay. The AccessPay solution provided a significantly improved interface and experience for both internal teams and end clients. Finseta can now focus on front-end customer experience, not back office processes, which AccessPay runs.

The result

Finseta wanted to deliver on three pillars of its product strategy: global expansion, scaling the business, and product enablement. The key objective was to make payment processing as quick and easy as possible for all its corporate, high-net worth and private customers.

The collaboration delivered measurable results for Finseta:

• Rapid deployment: A full SWIFT integration was completed in just six months –impressive for a first-time SWIFT user.
• Cost savings: Leveraging AccessPay’s infrastructure and expertise was significantly more cost-effective than an internal build.
• Competitive advantage: The new capability allowed Finseta to quickly roll out services to clients, improving customer satisfaction and giving them an edge over larger, Tier 1 competitors.
• Scalable architecture: The solution is built to support Finseta’s future expansion into new jurisdictions.
• Strong partnership: Finseta benefited from AccessPay’s responsive support team, expert knowledge transfer, and collaborative working style.
• Reduction in opportunity cost: Finseta was able to spend more time focused on differentiating payment functionality.

Summary

Finseta’s experience shows the value of working with a third-party specialist in SWIFT connectivity. AccessPay’s knowledge ensures smoother implementation and faster issue resolution. In addition, leveraging a trusted partner helps future-proof Finseta’s payment infrastructure, making it easier to scale globally and maintain service reliability.

In a world where operational continuity is critical, Finseta has the assurance that in the event of technical issues AccessPay’s experts will resolve problems quickly, minimising downtime. Finseta can easily add more banks, payment types and workflows as it grows.