Santander moves into B2B BNPL market

The companies have combined Allianz Trade’s experience in trade credit insurance with Two’s B2B BNPL technology and Santander CIB’s working capital programme to create a one-stop service for corporates to offer business buyers instant deferred payments at checkout.

With a single API integration powered by Two, Santander CIB finances upfront payments to sellers and credit terms to buyers globally while Allianz Trade protects the whole value chain against non-payment risk. Sellers will have global multi-currency support to reduce the need for complex operating models with multiple providers across technology, trade insurance, and trade credit.

As part of the partnership, Allianz Trade assesses credit requests instantly by tapping its global corporate database, which contains commercial, financial and strategic information about more than 80 million corporates worldwide. Processing the results, Santander CIB is able make financing decisions on the spot, with deferred payment terms handled by Two's installment payments product.

Ignacio Frutos Lopez, global head receivables at Banco Santander CIB, says: “The fact that buyers have to use personal or corporate credit cards is still hindering B2B transactions. Enabling businesses to maintain their payment habits within 30 or 60 days of their invoices, in an e-commerce environment will be a big differentiator for sellers, while adding a major game changer: all concerns about non-payment risk are now removed, and their cash flow is preserved at all times.

"Additionally, the solution is instant and seamless which makes it really powerful for a firm dealing with huge sales volumes across different countries. Thanks to the service, large corporates will now be able to enjoy the BNPL product to grow their online activity safely and globally.”

The new B2B package rounds out Santander's BNPL coverage, following the launch of its B2C product Zinia in Germany and the Netherlands over the past year.