The e-commerce giant will use Banking Circle’s infrastructure and global network for digital payments in efforts to enhance its payments offerings. Banking Circle is a company whose core business is providing a range of financial institutions with global payment account transactions and foreign exchange services.

Alibaba payments head Paul Li expressed that Banking Circle was chosen due to its effectiveness in delivering indispensable infrastructure for online cross-border payments, calling their technology “disruptive”. Another motivation for partnering with Banking Circle was its global network, Li said.

Banking circle CEO, Anders la Cour, emphasised the platform’s added value by stating that all payments on the platform, whether domestic or international, are “merely payments”:

“Payment providers who join Banking Circle can offer ‘local’ cross-border payments, with low fees, good FX rates and fast transfer times. It’s a cohesive solution – there’s no differentiation between local and cross-border payments. All payments occur quickly, at low cost. Payments are simply payments.”

La Cour was recently nominated for the 2018 Payments Power 10.