Natixis Payments and Visa have announced Xpollens, a full white label “Payments in a Box” offer for Fintechs, corporates and retailers.
Announced at Money 20/20, Xpollens helps these players integrate a full range of payment services, from payment cards to instant payments through customer accounts.
“X p ollens removes the complexity of issuing and managing paymen ts methods, allowing Fintechs, retailers and corporates to concentrate on their core business, on providing the best customer experience, and to take full advantage of the huge business opportunities afforded by PSD 2, ” said Natixis Payments CEO Pierre-Antoine Vacheron.
A co-creation approach that combines shared expertise
Xpollens is a co-creation initiative that benefits from the combined expertise of Natixis Payments, the biggest Visa card issuer in continental Europe (20 million Visa cards 2018) through the BPCE group, and Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments.
Natixis Payments and Visa share a culture of innovation, as well as solid expertise in integrating the latest innovations and payments methods available in the euro zone. The two companies have created specialist multidisciplinary “squads”, whose experts work closely with individual customers, whatever their size, in a focused co-creation approach. Using agile methods, these squads help integrate tailor-made payments solutions quickly.
Xpollens is initially piloting the offer with Fintechs. Two partner companies were selected at the beginning of 2019 to test and develop the range of services provided by Natixis Payments and Visa: Spanish savings app Coinscrap, and French company Linxo, a financial assistant app that allows customers to view and plan across multiple accounts.
Linxo, France’s leading mobile financial assistant service, aims to offer its customers an expanded service with checking accounts, payment cards and instant payments.
“Thanks to X p ollens, we can issue physical or virtual payment cards, while helping our customers k e e p t r a c k o f m u lti p l e a c c o u n ts w it h r e a l - ti m e n o tifi c a ti o n s,” said Linxo CEO Bruno Van
Haetsdaele. “This answers our customers’ demand for real - time information on their a ccounts, and frees us from restriction s imposed by their banks.”
Xpollens commitment is to deploy a full payments solution with its customers within 100 days. Linxo’s implementation process began in May 2019. The company will be ready for commercial testing with customers before the end of the year.
A race against time to deliver services to new users
“The reality today is that the user experience must be seamless, easy, fast and personalised, and that includes paymen ts,” said Visa Head of Strategic Partnerships Europe, SVP Bill Gajda. “However, offering new payments services is complex. While PSD2 has open ed up the market by allowing players to offer payments services previously reserved for traditional banks, this opportunity comes with a level of regulatory complexity , and c ompl iance with rules imposed by different countries across the euro zone is a big ch allenge . X p ollens helps by providing the necessary payment licenses and by guaranteeing the smooth management of payment accounts.”
Beyond licenses, Xpollens provides a wealth of white label services, including physical and virtual cards, contactless and mobile payment and more.
“It’s a huge opportunity, but only the players who are quickest to offer a seamless customer journey t h a t i n t e g r a t e s n e w p a y m e n t m e t h o d s that m e e t c o n s u m e r e x p e c t a ti o n s will differentiate themselves from the competition ," said Pierre-Antoine Vacheron, CEO of Natixis Payments. "With Xpollens, Natixis Payments and Visa have respond ed , at a pan - European level, to a rapidly evolving market by providing non - banking players with expertise, platforms and innovations."