Most of us have been benefitting from an embedded personal banking experience for years.
We’ve come to take for granted the simplicity of banking apps. It’s rare to ring your bank, and rarer still to enter one – for many, even using a computer to log in is a relic of the past.
Convenience is the name of the game. Corporates, though, aren’t so lucky.
Finance and treasury professionals are stuck transferring money to hundreds of accounts every day and each transaction could be worth thousands – all with a user interface nowhere near as intuitive as that of Monzo or Starling.
This doesn’t have to be the case.
Here at AccessPay, our mission is to make banking for medium-to-large businesses as smart, simple, and secure as it is for consumers.
The key is embedded corporate banking, allowing firms to join the 4th Wave of Banking.
What is the 4th Wave of Banking?
Embedded corporate banking represents a big step forwards for businesses conducting operations across any sector.
So much so, in fact, that we consider it a new wave – one that consumers are already in.
Let’s think of it this way:
1st Wave: using in-person bank branches to make payments and manage your finances.
2nd Wave: the advent of telephone banking.
3rd Wave: online banking – what most corporates use today.
4th Wave: embedded banking. A seamless, pain-free experience where a corporate’s back-end systems are connected to their banks behind the scenes.
Thanks to the emergence of several big hitters in the banking sphere – as well as mobile technology evolving rapidly – personal banking has become a breeze.
Now it’s about making that experience universal, bridging the gap so that businesses can join the 4th Wave.
We all experience the 4th Wave of Banking in our personal lives, but when it comes to business, managing finances has been historically tricky. AccessPay are here to introduce embedded corporate banking.
The Embedded Corporate Banking Framework
Embedded corporate banking isn’t just an idea.
The unique benefits it brings can be attributed to AccessPay’s founder, Anish Kapoor.
“We had a vision. This was ten years ago, before Monzo, before Starling, before TransferWise – open banking hadn’t even been invented in 2012.
“We were the UK’s first cloud-based Bacs solution. Automating payments is still our bread and butter, but embedded corporate banking is about much more than that.
“I think about it like Uber” he continues.
“You get out, walk off, and carry on with your life. No obvious transaction has taken place. But, in the background, you’ve just paid your driver.
“It happened seamlessly behind the scenes, embedded into the application. That’s how we picture the 4th Wave of Banking – a corporate banking experience that’s totally embedded.”
So how does it work?
To answer this question, we can look to the ‘Embedded Banking Framework’.
In essence, to achieve both Control and Visibility, every business needs Connectivity and Automation.
As your embedded corporate banking partner, here at AccessPay this framework is underpinned by our commitment to world-class service every step of the way.
Let’s break each down in a little more detail.
Connectivity
Back-office systems are a staple for many businesses, but one core problem remains: they don’t natively connect to banks.
This means you or your finance/treasury team are stuck making manual payments and logging into a bunch of banking portals for the bulk of the day.
For your banking operations to really thrive, you need a solution that works with any bank, any payment rail, and any bank office system.
Bacs solutions are a must, but there’s so much more to the world of payments. CHAPS, Faster Payments, SWIFT, SEPA… providers often charge extra for added functionality, but that’s not the case at AccessPay.
Whether you’re a disruptive startup or a multinational corporation with a global presence, connectivity is at the core of the embedded corporate banking experience.
Automation
The 3rd wave of banking for corporates is underpinned by spreadsheets, card readers, and banking portal logins.
Not only is it demotivating and time-consuming for finance and treasury teams but they can open up your operations to risk and human error.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the importance of having airtight financial processes has become much more obvious.
A misplaced decimal point here or an extra zero there may not seem like a big deal, but they can be enough to send your business into shortfall.
Automation eliminates risk and human error, saving you time to focus on what really matters.
Control
Auditing and compliance remain hot topics in the banking landscape.
However, it’s easy for them to fall by the wayside, either because of the size of your team or the manual nature of your processes.
With automation, you’re creating processes that have a foundation in control, security, and governance.
Embedded corporate banking means built-in bank-grade security. It means enhanced payment controls. It means waving goodbye to fraud and human error.
Visibility
Embedded corporate banking is about streamlining the cash moving in and out of your business, but it’s also about managing it smartly. Banking operations work best when you know how much money you have.
Most businesses lack access to a centralised view of their cash, which becomes a problem when that capital is spread across multiple countries and subsidiaries.
Embedded banking is synonymous with cash management, which allows you to reap the rewards of live, real-time payables and receivables data. No more handling your finances at a 30-60 day time deficit.
Instead, you can spend your new-found time forecasting and strategising.
Corporates have enough to worry about without the faff of manual banking processes. Embedded corporate banking is here to even the playing field.
Make Embedded Corporate Banking Work For You
We truly believe there’s a need for embedded corporate banking across every industry.
The current challenges faced by finance and treasury professionals are unsustainable. As your company grows and the wider world of banking continues to evolve, these issues will only become greater. If you want a competitive edge in the market, you don’t want to be left behind.
If you’re already aware of what you want – be it API functionality or the ability to automatically download bank feeds – or you’re after a conversation to discover what’s best for your business, there’s a place for you in the 4th Wave of Banking.
To start your embedded corporate banking journey, fill in the form below and we’ll be right with you to help.
