• Seamless integration via Crassula enhances customer proposition and delivers rapid time to market 
• Single agency banking partner for operating, client money, customer segregated, safeguarding, and multi-currency accounts 
• A virtual account structure supports a scaling business without adding operational complexity 
• Simplified access to Bacs, CHAPS, and Faster Payments (FPS) for GBP, and SEPA Credit for euro payments 

For licenced financial institutions, regulatory approval is only the first milestone. The next challenge is delivering the infrastructure needed to onboard customers, process payments, manage accounts, support compliance, and run day-to-day payment operations at scale. 

Developing this infrastructure internally can take months or even years, delaying market entry and increasing operational costs. Crassula and ClearBank enabled a UK-licenced Electronic Money Institution (EMI) to launch a fully operational digital payments platform in less than four weeks. 

A UK-authorised EMI wanted to launch multi-currency accounts and international payment services without building or maintaining an internal banking platform. 

Although the business already had the required regulatory licence and a clearly defined business model, it still needed the operational capabilities to launch, including: 

• GBP and EUR accounts 
• UK and international payment capabilities 
• Digital onboarding for individuals and businesses 
• Web and mobile banking applications 
• Administrative tools for operations and compliance 

Traditional banking technology vendors estimated implementation timelines ranging from six to eighteen months, requiring substantial upfront investment, internal engineering resources, and ongoing platform maintenance. 

Operating with a lean organisational structure, the firm wanted to focus on customer acquisition and business development. For a growing fintech, this approach was neither commercially viable nor aligned with its desired speed to market.  

It required a solution that could be deployed rapidly while remaining scalable for future growth.

To accelerate the launch of its payment services, the EMI sought a partner to provide its core infrastructure. This led it to ClearBank partner Crassula, to implement a two-layer Banking-as-a-Service architecture combining Crassula's white-label banking platform with ClearBank's Agency Banking solution. 

Crassula collaborated with the firm to offer a comprehensive white-label core banking platform, which includes full back-office, customer onboarding with automated KYC and KYB verification through SumSub, payment orchestration, and mobile/web interfaces including native iOS and Android apps. 

ClearBank delivers the underlying GBP and EUR infrastructure, including operating, client money, customer segregated and safeguarding accounts. These are complemented by connectivity to Bacs, CHAPS, and Faster Payments (FPS) for GBP payments, SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) for euro-denominated payments, and multi-currency accounts supporting balances in up to 11 currencies. 

By combining Crassula's Banking-as-a-Service platform with ClearBank's regulated infrastructure, the client launched a fully branded payment platform without developing proprietary software, with a simple, single integration to an underlying agency bank underpinning the service. 

Time to market is a competitive advantage, and the EMI onboarded its first production customer less than four weeks after signing the implementation agreement.  

The partnership is minimising technical complexity and enables the firm to operate the entire banking service without an internal software development team. It also provides a foundation for scalability through an efficient model for account setup and management.  

For example, ClearBank’s virtual GBP accounts are built for flexibility, enabling the EMI to open millions of accounts, each with its own addressable vIBAN (virtual International Bank Account Number), with no limit on the number of logic layers that the firm can create within its ledger. 

The firm can offer its customers Bacs, CHAPS, and FPS for GBP payments and SEPA Credit for euro payments, without the operational cost and complexity of becoming a direct participant. It also avoids the ongoing capital investment required to maintain those connections and deliver the uptime its customers demand, with all updates and changes managed by ClearBank.