Banking Circle, the innovative financial infrastructure provider, has enhanced the tools available to Payments businesses for their marketplace customers. Payments businesses can now offer their marketplace sellers virtual IBANs to collect the proceeds of their online Amazon store in the United States.

Regardless of whether a seller has a USD account in their home country, Amazon and the majority of other marketplaces pay in the currency of the bank account’s country. For example if a UK seller has a USD account based in the UK, Amazon automatically converts the payment to GBP as the account is in the UK.  And Amazon traditionally charges 3.9% of a transaction value when sending an international payment, eating into a seller’s profits.

At a time when online merchants need all the support they can get to retain profitability, Banking Circle has addressed this challenge, giving Payments businesses an important added value for their clients.

Using Banking Circle Virtual IBAN, Payments businesses’ merchants are allocated US bank details, allowing Amazon to pay in USD and via their ACH payment corridor (the US version of SEPA and BACS). This allows merchants to sell internationally and take control of the foreign exchange and payment method of their store income.

The addition of USD to Banking Circle Virtual IBAN enhances the service Payments businesses can offer their merchants:

• EU marketplaces – Sellers are provided with a DE IBAN and can receive SEPA credits
• UK marketplaces – Sellers are provided with a Sort Code and account number and can receive BACS, CHAPs and Faster Payment credits
• US marketplaces – Sellers are provided with an ABA number and account number and can receive ACH credits (Amazon only)

As a multi-currency, multi-jurisdictional banking solution Banking Circle Virtual IBAN negates the need to have several banking relationships and enables FX and Payments businesses to give their customers their own virtual IBANs. With full transaction transparency, payments acceptance and screening time are reduced.  Banking Circle Virtual IBAN also reduces the likelihood of errors in processing cross border payments.  Plus reconciliation and settlement times are improved, helping FX and Payments businesses improve the customer experience.  End-to-end transparency also reduces AML and KYC risk.