As an Electronic Money Institution (EMI), you rely on banking partners to deliver core capabilities, such as operating accounts, safeguarding, and real-time payments. But as you scale, one requirement becomes increasingly important: the ability to offer virtual accounts. 

Virtual accounts enable EMIs to assign unique accounts to each end customer, automate reconciliation, and support high-volume payment flows. Without them, many EMIs are forced to rely on pooled accounts, manual processes, and workarounds that become difficult to maintain at scale. 

This is where many traditional banking setups begin to show limitations. Lack of API access and limited support for virtual accounts can delay product launches and restrict growth.  

As a result, EMIs often look to specialist banking partners that can support virtual accounts and modern payment infrastructure, such as ClearBank.

ClearBank is a UK-based, fully licenced clearing bank designed to support EMIs and other regulated financial institutions in the UK and Europe. Through its cloud-based, API-first infrastructure, EMIs can create and manage virtual accounts and vIBANs at scale while maintaining compliance with safeguarding requirements. 

Below are the ways ClearBank supports EMIs via virtual accounts: 

ClearBank enables EMIs to programmatically generate virtual accounts under their own sort code through its API. This allows account creation to happen in real time, rather than relying on manual processes or long onboarding cycles: 

• Virtual accounts can be created in seconds 
• No need to open individual real accounts for each user 
• Supports high-volume use cases, including platforms with thousands of end-customers to those with millions 

This is particularly valuable for EMIs building products that are likely to scale quickly, for example, if they’ve built a large wait-list for a new service.

ClearBank supports virtual IBANs (vIBANs), which serve as unique, externally addressable account details for each end customer. 

Every vIBAN is linked to an underlying real account, but behaves like a standalone account from the user’s perspective: 

• Customers can send and receive payments using their own account details 
• Payments are automatically routed to the correct virtual account 
• vIBANs can be generated at scale, supporting thousands or more users 

This enables EMIs to offer account-like experiences under their own sort code, without needing to provision individual real accounts.

Without virtual accounts, EMIs often rely on pooled accounts and reference numbers to identify incoming payments. This creates operational complexity and increases the risk of errors. 

ClearBank’s virtual account structure removes this dependency: 

• Each payment is tied directly to a specific virtual account 
• No need to rely on reference data for reconciliation 
• Transaction visibility improves across all payment flows 

As volumes increase, this significantly reduces manual reconciliation work and improves auditability.

ClearBank’s infrastructure is designed to support large-scale account creation and transaction volumes. 

EMIs can: 

• Create hundreds, thousands, or millions of virtual accounts 
• Process high volumes of payments across these accounts 
• Expand into new products or customer segments without restructuring their banking setup 

This scalability is particularly important for platform-based businesses, marketplaces, and global payment providers managing large user bases.

ClearBank offers multiple account types that support EMI safeguarding requirements: 

• Customer segregated accounts to hold end-user funds separately 
• Client money accounts for holding funds on behalf of customers 
• Multi-currency accounts for managing different currencies under one structure 

EMIs can also choose a mix of virtual and real account structures. 

All GBP funds are held securely at the Bank of England, and euro funds at De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and ECB, where they are accessible 24/7.

ClearBank is a direct participant of key UK and European payment schemes, providing you indirect access via its API to: 

• Faster Payments for 24/7 GBP transactions 
• Bacs for Direct Debit and Direct Credit 
• CHAPS for high-value same-day payments 
• SEPA Credit Transfer for euro payments 
• SEPA Instant for real-time euro payments 

This means EMIs can: 

• Offer near real-time payment experiences, depending on the scheme being used 
• Avoid reliance on intermediaries 
• Maintain greater control over payment flows and data

ClearBank’s cloud-native API allows EMIs to embed banking functionality directly into their platforms. 

This supports: 

• Automated account creation and management 
• Payment initiation via API 
• Event-driven updates (e.g., webhooks for transaction status) 

Instead of relying on manual processes such as file uploads or banking portals, EMIs can build fully automated workflows that align with their product experience.

In addition to agency banking (payments and operating, client segregated, client money, and multi-currency accounts), ClearBank supports embedded banking capabilities. 

This enables EMIs to expand their product offerings over time to include FSCS-protected accounts and savings products, including Cash ISAs, without switching banking partners.

Not all EMI bank account providers offer virtual accounts in the same way. As you scale, differences in infrastructure, flexibility, and support become more important. When evaluating your options, focus on: 

• Issuing end customer accounts from your sort code: Deliver a bank-like experience for customers 
• Virtual account scalability: Ability to create large volumes of virtual accounts via API, with full payment functionality 
• API-first infrastructure: Near real-time payment processing, automated workflows, and event-driven updates 
• Access to the right payment schemes: Connectivity to Faster Payments, Bacs, CHAPS, and SEPA without reliance on intermediaries 
• Flexibility for growth: Support for higher volumes, more complex payment flows, and expansion into new markets or use cases

For EMIs evaluating banking partners, virtual accounts are becoming a core part of building scalable, efficient payment systems. 

As a bank built for EMIs, ClearBank provides a combination of API-first infrastructure, virtual accounts, and direct payment scheme membership. This enables EMIs to reduce operational complexity and scale their products without being constrained by legacy banking systems.