Volt has obtained an EMI licence from FCA. The license recognises Volt as an electronic money institution, enabling it to extend its platform. Volt has been registered with the FCA as a Payments institution since 2020. It is also now an Authorised Electronic Money Institution. The register notes that it was granted in August last year.
The licence has enabled it to evolve its cash management product, Connect, and it is now able to issue virtual accounts to merchants. Connect gives organisations full control over the payment process. It enables merchants to receive account-to-account payments from their customers through Volt using open banking. They can provide instant confirmation and give merchants better visibility and control over the end-to-end process.
The licence also enables Volt to offer virtual accounts as a standalone product. This is useful for organisations that are not looking for online payment solutions. Examples include multi-entity organisations that want to transfer money between bank accounts of subsidiaries or organisations like travel agencies that need to make bulk payments.
The platform delivers the kind of visibility on payments that has rarely been seen. Often, when making bank transfers, it isn’t easy to locate where the funds are in the transaction. With the Volt solution, it will be easier to locate where the money is held in the banking system.
Can Volt modernise banking?
The 2023 Business Payments Barometer from Bottomline looked at the state of the payment industry across the UK and the US. 50% of respondents agreed that they had little visibility over the processing of payments. 49% cited a lack of visibility as well. The situation in the US is worse. Perhaps of greater concern for many, was that payment fees were too high (61%).
Volt has solved two of these issues for its merchants at least, and the faster payments also assists with cash flow.
Tom Greenwood, CEO Volt, comments, “The UK and Europe are integral markets for our business so I am delighted we have been granted our EMI licence from the FCA. With this licence we are able to go even further in expanding our business. By becoming an account provider as well as a payment initiator, it enables us to not only broaden our product set, but also adapt and enhance our broad commercial offering. We have already seen a number of our key customers benefiting from the capabilities the licence brings.”
Volt now has licenses in both the UK and Poland and operates across Europe as well as recently launching in Australia. It can now extend its product in the UK’s mature environment and test them fully before extending to other regions.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Good news for Volt, in a highly regulated industry, it is one of the fintechs disrupting the bigger banks using open banking. With a new CMO in Irina Chuchkina, it will expect to further expand its footprint at the expense, potentially, of the more traditional banks. Volt is now able to offer a faster service with greater visibility than traditional methods. It will be interesting to see how successful its expansion is both in the UK and abroad. What it may need to do is consider more partnerships, particularly with SaaS firms that operate in the B2B space and may have the need for an integrated or embedded payments solution.
