Ixaris create Open Payments Cloud

Ixaris Group launches the Open Payments Cloud to commercialise its work carried out as part of the EU-sponsored Open Payments Ecosystem initiative.

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The initiative led by Ixaris in collaboration with Visa, Locke Lord, Rainmaking Innovation, IDT Finance and the University of Malta has now been successfully completed.

The Open Payments Cloud (OPC) is a secure, payment industry compliant cloud-based architecture that incorporates a toolkit of diverse payment APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and a universal sandbox all on one platform. This creates an environment in which all parties - financial institutions, payment providers and developers alike - can collaborate to develop, deploy and run payment applications.

The OPC provides a way to bring together the diverse payments APIs that are increasingly being published by financial institutions and payments vendors, and delivers secure access to such payments infrastructure that goes beyond the scope of the open banking regulatory measures coming into force in 2018 under the 2nd Payment Services Directive (PSD2). The OPC platform was a finalist in the Most Disruptive Payments Technology category at the 2017 Payments Awards.

Alex Mifsud, CEO of Ixaris explains: “The financing from the EU Horizon 2020 programme for the Open Payments Ecosystem (OPE) initiative provided us with technology that greatly accelerates the scaling of our global B2B payments capabilities. For instance, as a result of this work, we can now build and iterate payments products more rapidly in response to changing customer needs in the travel sector.

“However, the OPE technology has far broader potential than simply delivering to Ixaris’ needs, and we have decided to launch, as a separate business, the Open Payments Cloud to broaden the exploitation of this technology well beyond our focus on outbound B2B payments.”

The Open Payments Cloud business will be developed in a ‘lean’ way, in collaboration with forward-looking financial institutions, fintechs and payment processors, and directed by close engagement with the developer and payments innovation community.

The creation of Open Payments Cloud sees the expansion of the Ixaris group to three distinct businesses spanning consumer and commercial payments. Others include Entropay, the first company to launch virtual prepaid cards in Europe 13 years ago and now servicing 2 million customers, and Ixaris Technologies, the fast expanding B2B payments arm of the business.

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Comments: (4)

Paul Love

Paul Love VP Business Development at Konsentus

With the publication of PSD2 RTS this week and the widenting of the scope of UK Open Banking, the OPC looks to be in the sweet spot for implementing the innovation that these new regiulations enable.  

Alexander Mifsud

Alexander Mifsud Co-Founder and CEO at Weavr.io

Your point about timing is well made, Paul, but also note that PSD2 will only enable access to licensed third-party providers rather than the long tail of developers and innovators. 

In addition to enabling acces for innovators with deeper pockets, OPC is also looking to support the long tail of developers by inviting an initial ‘founder members’ group of financial institutions and payments processing vendors to the OPC.

Paul Love

Paul Love VP Business Development at Konsentus

Alex, I agrree, the OPC shoud also provde access to the PSD2/Open Banking party to those developers that would otherwise de excluded by cost & timescale required to obtain the relevent licence approval.

Peter Bove

Peter Bove Sales Manager at Aviso

Alex,

Congratulations on this achievement, it sounds like a great idea!

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