With its single API technology, Banking Circle is on a mission to completely overhaul the world’s legacy payments infrastructure, delivering truly instant payments to meet the challenge of a ‘real time’ age. It has indeed a strong pitch, namely the ability to solve the fundamental issues of the complex and outdated payments back-end. And via a comprehensive and flexible suite of services across accounts, payments and FX, its service is tailored to meet the needs of companies with ambitious payment goals.
Mishal Ruparel, Chief Commercial Officer at Banking Circle, discusses the firm’s recent highlights and future plans with GlobalData banking and payments group editor, Douglas Blakey
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EPI: Can you summarise the Banking Circle USP? What is the Banking Circle value proposition?
Mishal Ruparel, Chief Commercial Officer, Banking Circle:
Although many aspects of financial services have seen rapid innovation in recent years, the global payments ecosystem has evolved much more slowly, with back-end infrastructure still largely working with timescales and costs set in the twentieth century. Without fundamental redesign, many businesses will remain stuck in a ‘slow lane’, processing transactions at a pace that no longer matches the speed of other parts of their business or the expectations of their digitally enabled customers. To address this challenge, Banking Circle has built a single global payments platform with interoperability at its core, combining pioneering technology and the established central bank clearing system to offer businesses ultra high-speed access to global, multi-currency instant payment schemes. Together with our customers and partners, we are aiming to overhaul the world’s legacy payments infrastructure – delivering truly instant payments to meet the challenge of today’s ‘real time’ age.
EPI: Historically, Asia Pacific has led the way in payments but there is momentum in Europe thanks to regulatory action. What is Banking Circle’s take on prospects in Europe and why is the company targeting expansion in Europe?
Ruparel:
Europe represents a core market for Banking Circle as we continue to scale our business globally. Like many markets, Europe has been experiencing a sustained increase in cross-border payment activity, with cross-border transaction volumes in the region projected to grow by 58% between 2023 and 2028. This trend is underpinned by robust economic activity between EU member states and strong trading relationships with global markets.
The EU has also built a regulatory environment supportive of Banking Circle’s expansion in Europe. Initiatives like PSD2 have helped to enhance innovation, competition, and security in the payments space, while SEPA has simplified euro-denominated cross-border euro transactions. Upcoming changes to the regulatory landscape, particularly the introduction of PSR and PSD3, are also set to bring about a range of benefits, including further innovation in the space and enhancements to fraud and customer protection measures. Europe’s investment in payment infrastructure – including TIPS, SEPA Instant, and domestic instant schemes like Sweden’s Swish and the UK’s Faster Payments – is also accelerating the region toward full real-time cross-border capabilities.
Despite this progress, many cross-border, multi-currency transactions in Europe remain costly, slow, and opaque. This creates a clear opportunity for companies like Banking Circle to step in with modern, advanced infrastructure that bypasses legacy limitations. Through our next generation platform, we’re helping our clients meet rising demand while improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of international payments.
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By GlobalDataEPI: What is the significance of Banking Circle securing access to Swiss Interbank Clearing?
Ruparel:
Securing access to the Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC) system allows Banking Circle to offer clients a fully integrated, real-time connection to domestic payment schemes in Liechtenstein and Switzerland. This latest integration means Banking Circle now provides direct access to local payment schemes and account infrastructure for five of the 12 major currencies across Europe and the UK. This milestone reflects our ongoing ambition to become a super-correspondent bank for global business-to-business payments, removing legacy barriers that have restricted demand for instant payment flows among European businesses while enhancing financial inclusion across the continent.
EPI: And why is the Visa Direct initiative noteworthy?
Ruparel:
Our work with Visa will see Visa Direct gain access to Banking Circle’s extensive local clearing rails around the world, bolstering its global payments reach and joining the over 530 licensed financial institutions that benefit from our offering. Through this collaboration, Visa Direct will leverage Banking Circle’s single API technology to connect to multiple direct clearing systems worldwide — all through one secure, reliable, and scalable provider. This marks a significant milestone in our mission to enhance the speed, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of cross-border payments. Collaborating with a global leader in the payments space like Visa Direct not only strengthens Banking Circle’s capabilities but also underscores the trust placed in our infrastructure and the value of our single API approach. It is a clear demonstration of how Banking Circle is helping international businesses simplify access to global payment networks — delivering reach, reliability, and real-time performance through a single integration.
EPI: It is often said that the adoption of real-time payments demands more than just updating payment rails – it requires full-scale transformation of banking infrastructure. Banks must re-engineer outdated systems and rethink legacy processes in the front-end and back-end. How realistic is that? Do banks get it?
Ruparel:
Legacy systems built around limited operating hours are poorly suited to supporting instant settlements, requiring banks to modernise both front-end and back-end systems, rethink operational workflows, and embrace more flexible, cloud-based architectures. The necessary technology for facilitating this transformation is certainly there, like cloud-native platforms, which can provide the scalability, flexibility, and resilience needed to meet rising transaction volumes and support innovation. Yet, the degree of the transformation varies across institutions, with some pursuing incremental upgrades, while others are undertaking more comprehensive overhauls. Although 76% of European possessed a moderate degree of business and technological readiness to facilitate instant payments, just 7% are positioned as leaders in instant payment adoption. Current market conditions highlight the need for more decisive action if banks are to remain competitive in a real-time, always-on payments landscape.
