In the financial industry, money movement velocity is more crucial than ever. Companies are aware that their chances of success increase with the speed at which payments are processed.

In this in-depth interview, Thom Ruiter, Vice President of Banking and Financial Products at Adyen, discusses the importance of quick payments, how the fintech integrated with the Bank of England (BoE) in record time, and what lies ahead for the company.

Adyen: Quick integration of BoE

Adyen didn't actually receive banking authorization from the BoE until 2023, and it took them just eight weeks to link to the bank and Faster Payments Service.

"We can now offer our recently launched integrated financial product suite in the UK thanks to the authorization," adds Ruiter. "Our SaaS platform customers can now offer embedded financial services to their small business users."

"We are able to continue offering financial goods and banking services in the UK thanks to our banking licence. We can now match our services in the UK to our offerings in Europe and the US as a result of continuing our activities here under the Temporary Permissions Regime," he continues.

Since Adyen already uses Instant Payments in the US and the EU, integrating Faster Payments into its essential infrastructure makes Adyen's use of them possible in the UK as well.

"Owning these infrastructures under our licenses is essential to guaranteeing the best possible quality and the most effective money transfer for UK customers worldwide," says Ruiter.

"The authorization reflects our vision of becoming an end-to-end financial technology platform for the world's leading businesses and further underscores our growth as an ambitious center for international commerce."

concrete effects for platform users of Adyen

Although Adyen clearly benefits from its collaboration with BoE, what does this mean for users of Adyen's platform? What concrete advantages can Adyen provide them with?

Ruiter responds, "With just one worldwide partner for payments and payouts, our banking licence enables our platform customers to pay their UK users, such as online sellers, vendors, and gig workers, in a minute, 24/7."

"By doing this, these platforms can set themselves apart and draw in new users who prioritize getting their money as quickly as possible."

This not only helps Adyen's current clientele, but it can also draw in new ones. According to a collaborative analysis from Adyen and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), 69% of platform customers would switch to another platform right away if it provided a better integrated payments experience, including quicker payouts.

Ruiter views Adyen's BoE integration as a "big opportunity" in the UK market, which makes sense. According to him, embedded payments already account for up to 80% of the income for established platform companies.

He goes on, "We discovered that there could be a potential revenue uplift of 70% for those platforms considering embedded finance offers for their small business users, while the market for small business embedded finance is still at an early stage of development - with less than 5% of penetration."

"Thanks to our technology, platforms may minimize rejections by immediately providing company funding through their platform to pre-qualified users. Everything is automated, including managing repayments, determining how much a corporation can borrow, and doing proactive risk assessments.

Our platform customers may determine how much a user can safely borrow and automate repayments without negatively impacting their cash flow if they handle the embedded payments. It is feasible to automate the amount that a user repays for each transaction with embedded payments.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of business financing for small enterprises. For our Embedded Finance Report, we met with small firms, and 94% of them indicated that having access to liquidity would help them expand.

Additionally, Adyen's banking license allows it to develop new financial products, such card issuing services, to assist its clients in finding new revenue streams and fortifying their businesses for the future.

Ruiter goes on, "Our customers can payout globally to their own platform customers using a single API, allowing those users to use their own funds to earn interest, make R&D investments, and lessen their reliance on outside funding."

In this manner, they may handle money internationally with a single partner and avoid the operational challenges and scalability problems that come with collaborating with several providers across regions.

Additionally, we manage our operations as a local acquirer to guarantee that our extensive service offering benefits UK clients with increased speed, flexibility, and dependability.

A sneak peek at Adyen's future

With these increased capabilities in the UK market, we wonder what Adyen's future in the banking sector holds.

According to Ruiter, "We are growing our portfolio of in-house solutions that we offer our customers in an effort to capitalize on the banking-as-a-service opportunity."

We have established ourselves as the only supplier offering a complete stack embedded financial product suite through a single integration by investing in banking licenses in our primary areas.

The Capital and Accounts solutions we currently provide our platform customers allow them to keep providing cutting-edge services to their own users.

Platforms can now proactively provide business financing based on historical payment data thanks to capital, and Adyen's Accounts offering gives customers fast access to funds and the ability to manage their finances wherever they conduct business.

Our attention is currently on the future. Financial technology needs to keep up with the aspirations of businesses. We began by addressing payments and the disjointed legacy systems head-on.

"We are working to give the next generation of businesses more control and flexibility in light of the increasingly fragmented financial landscape."