Through the acquisition of Ecospend, the Swedish fintech firm expects to become a major open banking payments company in the UK with more than 80 banks and a consumer reach of about 50 million clients
Ecospend acquired by Trustly. (Credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)
Swedish fintech company Trustly has completed the previously announced acquisition of UK-based open finance technology platform Ecospend.
The financial terms of the transaction remain undisclosed.
The deal was announced by Trustly in May 2022. Trustly is a digital account-to-account (A2A) transactions payments platform.
Through the acquisition of Ecospend, the Swedish firm expects to become a major open banking payments company in the UK with more than 80 banks and a consumer reach of about 50 million clients.
Ecospend’s UK payment initiation services and data services that include affordability and identity verification solutions, combined with full UK bank connectivity, are said to fit strategically with the collection capabilities and cross-border reach of Trustly.
Together, the two parties are expected to see a payments volume of more than £7.5bn in the UK for 2022.
Established in 2017, Ecospend is a financial conduct authority (FCA) regulated pay-by-bank payments provider. Ecospend is also said to hold a significant contract with HMRC, which is the tax authority of the UK government.
Ecospend chief commercial officer James Hickman said: “The UK is the largest digital payments market in Europe and represents a huge opportunity for us.
“We have seen an incredible appetite from both consumers and businesses to embrace Open Banking and the simple and secure payments that it enables. Trustly and Ecospend will be able to excel in this space with the most comprehensive and compelling solution on the market.”
Trustly was founded in 2008 and claims to serve around 8,100 merchants.
The Swedish fintech firm is a licensed payment institution under the second payment services directive (PSD2). Trustly operates under the supervision of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority in Europe.
Trustly group CEO Johan Tjärnberg said: “We are very excited that we have now officially closed the acquisition. This is an important milestone and is fully in line with Trustly’s ambitious target to be the game-changing market leader in the UK.
“We can’t wait to continue our expansion journey as a collective team, bringing best-in-class Open Banking solutions to both consumers and merchants.”