LSE-AIM listed e-banking and international payments firm Equals Group plc (formerly FairFX) has announced the commencement of a new B2B relationship with HomeSend, a Belgium based company engaged in cross-border payments.

Under this agreement, Equals (LON:EQLS) will bolster HomeSend activities in the UK, further enabling customers to send money to UK bank accounts in real time and with upfront transparency of all associated fees.

HomeSend is the first large-scale B2B partner to utilise Equals’ ‘Directly Connected Direct Settling’ participation status with the Faster Payments service to make UK payments at scale. The agreement highlights Equals’ B2B2B/C capabilities in facilitating other financial institutions needs via its robust, scalable and efficient platform. Combining bank-grade UK clearance capabilities with the FX services and expertise of the Group in the same platform provides Equals a clear competitive edge in the international payments space.

Ian Strafford-Taylor, CEO of Equals, said:

“During the past two years, we have been investing in building products and connectivity to payments networks in order to support our B2B offering. We are now seeing the tangible results of that investment both directly to our own customers and by using this infrastructure to address the needs of other financial services businesses.

This agreement with HomeSend is the largest manifestation of this to date and will provide significant incremental scale through our payment systems. We can now offer major corporates, banks and financial institutions, continual access to real-time payments via APIs and bespoke portals, all with the security of having money flowing through our settlement accounts with the Bank of England. Coupled with our well-established credentials in the Foreign Exchange market, this new service provides a powerful and exciting new B2B revenue stream for the Group.”

Stephen Doyle, CEO of HomeSend, commented:

“HomeSend is committed to playing a key role in making cross-border payments simple, secure, and certain. We’re delighted to partner with Equals given that establishing direct connections to real-time clearing systems as they become more prevalent is core to our strategy.”