Currency Cloud, the B2B international payments engine inside countless financial firms announces a new Direct Debit functionality in partnership with Fidor Bank, a Munich-based digital bank that provides a unique banking API to seamlessly integrate Direct Debits into the payment processes of Currency Cloud and its customers. The new capability means that Currency Cloud can now provide a complete, end-to-end payment solution for its customers, from receiving funds to foreign exchange conversion and fund payout.

Where individual aspects of the payment lifecycle have traditionally been handled by specialist providers, forcing companies to work with multiple suppliers, Currency Cloud customers can now benefit from a one stop, joined up process. Take up of the Direct Debit functionality has been strong since its soft launch in May – Currency Cloud is already processing thousands of SEPA DD transactions, through Fidor’s API.

The new feature will allow Currency Cloud’s customers to pull funds directly from end user’s accounts with a ‘continuous authority’ payment agreement, avoiding the high costs that the card schemes usually demand for this service. They will continue to benefit from Currency Cloud’s real time wholesale FX rates and low-cost payments to make fund collection cheaper, faster, and more flexible. With the full payment process fully automated and reconciled, customers can focus on growing their businesses.

Mike Laven, CEO Currency Cloud comments: “Direct debit is a critical functionality in today’s on-demand economy. In a quest for an ever more convenient user experience, we are increasingly seeing payment transactions embedded in other services. No one enjoys making payments – it’s simply an unwelcome necessity to access a product or service. Direct debit has the ability to take this hassle away, removing the need for users to produce a card, and allowing quicker, cheaper payment acceptance for the service provider. Fidor’s API provides the perfect opportunity to integrate this into our payment processes.”

Matthias Kröner, CEO Fidor Bank added: “We are happy to see our new banking API enabling Direct Debit payments seamlessly for Currency Cloud and its customers for making international payments.”