Numeral and BNP Paribas partner to power Europe’s leading payments companies, enabling WorldFirst to better serve its European customers

PARIS, 4 June 2024—Numeral, the payments technology provider, and BNP Paribas, Europe’s leading bank, today announced a partnership to enable payment companies, including WorldFirst, Alma, Swile and Floa, to embed SEPA and local payments into their products seamlessly, become SEPA participants, and optimise their payment operations at scale.

This bank-fintech partnership will enable WorldFirst, a one-stop digital payment and financial services platform for global businesses, especially SMEs in international trade, to better support its European merchant clients for Euro collections by offering these businesses accelerated payment processes and heightened security throughout the European Economic Area (EEA).

WorldFirst is committed to integrating into more regional and local payment schemes, thereby empowering SMEs to seamlessly conduct trade and business operations across the globe. Currently, WorldFirst customers can have multi-currency World Account with payments to 200+ markets worldwide in over 100 currencies, 90% of which are settled within the same day.

”BNP Paribas has strong ambitions to support global and European fintech leaders in addressing the European market and helping the future champions emerge. As Europe’s leading bank, BNP Paribas offers the pan-European payment, treasury, and account solutions to do so. This strategic partnership with Numeral enables us to distribute these services more efficiently to our customers,” says Marc Espagnon, Head of Cash Management at BNP Paribas.

This partnership allows joint customers to easily access BNP Paribas’ services through Numeral’s single API and dashboard, which facilitates integration with fintechs’ modern architectures. As a result, payment companies benefit from faster time to market, reduced maintenance costs, and a future-proof payment infrastructure thanks to BNP Paribas’ extensive local payment systems coverage.

“Banks are critical to fintechs’ success, as they provide access to payment schemes, accounts and additional financial services that are core to fintechs’ offerings. Partnering with BNP Paribas gives our joint customers access to one of the biggest catalogues of services and the strongest expertise to scale in Europe,” says Édouard Mandon, co-founder and CEO at Numeral. “Numeral aggregates BNP Paribas best-in-class solutions into a single cloud-native, API-first platform from which joint customers can automate their payment operations across Europe”.

Through this partnership, joint clients can access SEPA, including SEPA instant, and Polish, Nordic, and Swiss payment schemes, access their BNP Paribas account information in real-time, and automate treasury payments to optimise their safeguarding operations.

"Originally established in London two decades ago, WorldFirst has evolved into a global company, proudly serving over a million SMEs. With a strong heritage and focus on the European market, WorldFirst will continue to offer tailor-made solutions that cater to the unique needs of businesses within this key region. To that end, we will work towards becoming a SEPA participant via partnering with a leading sponsor bank. This partnership will enable our European customers to benefit from Europe’s leading banking expertise and fintech innovation, so they can access fast, easy and secure payment and collection services in Euros through WorldFirst,” said Clara Shi, CEO of WorldFirst.

About BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas is the European Union’s leading bank and key player in international banking. It operates in 63 countries and has nearly 183,000 employees, including more than 145,000 in Europe. The Group has key positions in its three main fields of activity: Commercial, Personal Banking & Services for the Group’s commercial & personal banking and several specialised businesses including BNP Paribas Personal Finance and Arval; Investment & Protection Services for savings, investment and protection solutions; and Corporate & Institutional Banking, focused on corporate and institutional clients. Based on its strong diversified and integrated model, the Group helps all its clients (individuals, community associations, entrepreneurs, SMEs, corporates and institutional clients) to realise their projects through solutions spanning financing, investment, savings and protection insurance. In Europe, BNP Paribas has four domestic markets: Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg. The Group is rolling out its integrated commercial & personal banking model across several Mediterranean countries, Turkey, and Eastern Europe. As a key player in international banking, the Group has leading platforms and business lines in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas as well as a solid and fast-growing business in Asia-Pacific. BNP Paribas has implemented a Corporate Social Responsibility approach in all its activities, enabling it to contribute to the construction of a sustainable future, while ensuring the Group's performance and stability.

About WorldFirst

WorldFirst is a one-stop payment and financial services platform for SMEs engaged in global or cross-border trade. WorldFirst is empowering SMEs to successfully execute their strategic growth plans with technology. Through the World Account, WorldFirst is meeting the needs of SMEs engaged in international trade or business, both online via marketplaces or websites, as well as offline to support importers and exporters. This includes collections (receiving payments), making payments, currency conversion risk management and supply chain financing to help customers reduce costs, improve turnover efficiency to generate more revenue and sales, and quickly capture global business opportunities.

About Numeral

Numeral is a payment technology provider which delivers the infrastructure for fintechs and banks to connect to partner banks, access schemes, and automate payment operations.

Through its payments, reconciliations, treasury, and risk and fraud management capabilities, Numeral enables its customers to launch new products and expand geographically faster, reduce total cost of ownership and make their payments more resilient.

Numeral provides the payment infrastructure for European and global fintech leaders like WorkdFirst, Swile, Argentex, Deblock and Alma. Numeral also partners with Europe’s leading banks, including BNP Paribas, Barclays, BNP Paribas, HSBC, BPCE, and ABN AMRO. Launched in 2021, Numeral has raised €13m from world-class investors like Balderton and eFounders.

Contacts

Numeral, Matthieu Blandineau, press@numeral.io