Cobase helps companies manage multiple banking relationships through a single platform. In late June they secured the license from the De Nederlandsche Bank (the Dutch central bank). The license covers them as an account information service provider and a payment initiation service provider. Law firm Van Doorne advised Cobase during the application process.

Managing multiple bank accounts and accompanying ERP connections creates inefficiencies within organisations. Cobase offers clients a single point of access for all bank accounts and other financial services products. Jorge Schafraad, CEO of Cobase, explains that, “Cobase enables business clients to manage all of their bank accounts using a single portal. Their ERP system only needs to connect to Coabse and not individually to each bank.”

Cobase applied for a PSD2 license. But while it was possible to work with multiple banks pre-PSD2, for example via SWIFT, the new directive makes managing these connections easier.

Van Doorne lawyer and partner Arno Voerman said that although PSD2 looks to have been created to encourage payments innovation in the retail sector, one of the first licenses handed out in the Netherlands went to Cobase, a company that, “saw a gap in the business market”.