Accuity Takeover Hikes Payment Processing Tech - pymnts.com

With the acquisition of Apply Financial, Accuity wants to speed up payments for customers, it said in a statement Thursday (March 12). Terms of the deal were not released.

Apply Financial’s main product Validate, which allows customers to validate payments automatically, makes use of cloud technology to let firms submit the exact pinpointed numbers for bank accounts and payment details.

The move is in line with the general trend toward faster payments. Customers and businesses expect generally quicker, easier ways to pay these days, which makes straight through processing (STP) a competitive difference.

Accuity is known for work in the fields of crime screening, payments and know your customer solutions. The company has a portfolio called Bankers Almanac for Payments, which works to deliver reliable information on bank and routing data. The acquisition of Apply Financial will help the company stay competitive.

David White, executive vice president of global payments and KYC with Accuity, said the payments industry was in the throes of a massive transformation, and, as speed is one of the primary things customers look for, the acquisition would help Accuity stay competitive in that industry.

Mark Bradbury, director at Apply Financial, looked forward to sharing knowledge and expertise and collaborating on new ideas to move things forward.

But the speed of payments for B2B solutions still has a long way to go, with many paper checks still circulating at sluggish speeds, and high percentages of businesses requiring numerous different sign-offs before money reaches where it’s going. By contrast, related fields like business-to-customer (B2C) and peer-to-peer (P2P) have become familiar with quicker, more accelerated solutions like instant, real-time payments.

These days, more companies utilize functions like Credit-as-a-Service (CaaS), which streamline and offer more channels for B2B providers.

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Exclusive PYMNTS Report:

B2B APIs aren’t just for large enterprises anymore — middle-market firms and SMBs now realize their potential for enabling low-cost access to real-time payments and account data. But those capabilities are only the tip of the API iceberg, says HSBC global head of liquidity and cash management Diane Reyes. In the March 2020 B2B API Tracker, Reyes explains how the next wave of banking APIs could fight payments fraud and proactively alert middle-market treasurers to investment opportunities.