AccessPay go Beyond Bacs with Embedded Corporate Banking

Embedded corporate banking is about much more than Bacs.

Back in 2012, AccessPay became the UK’s first cloud-based Bacs solution, a fact that we’re proud of to this day.

In fact, many of our customers and partners likely know us best as a provider of Bacs, or simply a useful solution for automatically processing direct debits.

But the financial landscape has evolved. As we bring businesses from a variety of industries into the 4^th Wave of Banking, it’s clear that simplifying payments is only part of the picture.

Put simply, we’ve gone ‘Beyond Bacs’ – and, if your business is looking to expand given the recent burst of post-pandemic growth, there’s every reason you should too.

Let’s break it down into a little more detail.

A Little More About Embedded Corporate Banking

Fundamentally, AccessPay’s mission remains the same: to bring the corporate banking experience in line with the consumer experience.

We know that as a corporate, you or your finance/treasury teams face a number of issues both short and long term. Processing payments is a lengthy manual process – as is retrieving bank statement feeds – and a lack of cash visibility welcomes risk and human error.

To truly revolutionise the corporate banking experience, your experience needs to be embedded; back-office systems seamlessly connected to banks and financial applications without the need for all the ancient, cumbersome processes.

It’s all about the four tenets of the embedded corporate banking experience: Connectivity, Automation, Control, and Visibility.

In essence, we offer you the tools to make your banking operations a more tightly-knit experience, which in turn allows you to take back control of your finances with added security and insights.

Our solution handles countless CHAPS, Faster Payments, SWIFT, and cross-border transactions every month for as many as 1,000 companies all over the world.

This includes direct connections (known as host-to-host) with some of the biggest global banks: HSBC, Barclays, NatWest, BNP Paribas, Bank of America, Citi, Deutsch Bank, Standard Bank, and countless more.

To put it simply, yes – we’re still happy to help with streamlining your everyday Bacs needs. They’re a vital part of any banking operation.

But the scope of our capability has grown exponentially – and we want you to reap the rewards of it.

Happy young woman working, watching webinar, podcast on laptop, having remote conversation.

“AccessPay has evolved at an unprecedented rate in the last few years” explains Robart Hughes, Payments and Cash Management Automation Specialist at AccessPay.

“Not only are we experts when it comes to everything Bacs related, but we are now also industry leaders in all payments types, regardless of type, currency or destination”.

Go Beyond Bacs by Smartly Managing Your Cash

A core example of our expanded offering is our Cash Management solution.

By seamlessly connecting your banking estate with any ERP System, our Cash Management solution offers real-time, multi-bank cash visibility no matter the number of banks, subsidiaries, or countries.

Not only does this allow your team to ditch the painful processes, sprawling spreadsheets, and backwards banking portals, but it also offers:

• Intra-day updates for real-time analysis
• Oversight and control for rapid reaction to changes in FX, credit, interest rates
• Liquidity forecasting to enable short-term investment decisions
• The potential to find cash tucked away in forgotten-about subsidiaries

Work in Progress? No Problem 

Embedded Corporate Banking isn’t just about helping businesses at the top of the game, but removing the burden from those who are on their way.

For example, headache worthy topics such as SOX compliance and the upcoming switch to ISO 20022 – the new global standard for exchanging electronic messages between financial institutions – might list near the bottom of your pile of concerns.

However, using a cloud-based automation service is sure to remove the faff from these processes.

We’re here to provide our expert services during industry-wide transitionary periods.

Expanding our Expertise 

As we’re showcasing, the AccessPay of today is technically advanced and global in its outlook.

We can now grow alongside our customers as their payment needs evolve and they go through periods of digital transformation, such as implementing a new ERP system.

Being a fast-growing fintech, AccessPay works alongside hundreds of businesses to transform their finance and treasury functions, including Imperial College London, ITV, NSG and the AA.

Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Imperial College London 

This esteemed university brought AccessPay on board for a simple Bacs solution in 2019.

However, with international supplier payments going to accounts in 150 countries – in a mix of currencies, too – it soon became apparent we could widen the scope of our collaboration.

The journey so far has led to a direct link into RBS as well as a cost saving of roughly £50,000 a year thanks to AccessPay’s direct integration with Citizen’s Bank in America.

Rob Leech, Financial Systems Manager at Imperial College London said: “The direct connections were music to our ears – it meant not only could we get the UK Bacs working but we could also become more efficient with our foreign payments.

“AccessPay add more value to our proposition and we are building up a global footprint together.”

Sainsbury’s Bank

This well-established supermarket bank appeared on the AccessPay radar in 2015  after we were recommended as a corporate cash management solution.

The Sainsbury’s Bank team made high value cross-border payments every day via SWIFT, but found the manual nature of the work too time consuming.

AccessPay eliminated this problem by integrating their TMS with the SWIFT network.

Treasury Operations Manager Warren Hyde said: “Without AccessPay we’d have to revert to old manual processes, and we wouldn’t have the oversight of our cash we enjoy now.

“The platform has transformed the way we work for the better.”