CryptoGlobe spoke to up-and-coming payments solution company Paybase about their platform, crypto regulation and their exciting vision for the future.
Paybase is the most flexible solution for payments, compliance and risk. Online marketplaces, gig/sharing economy platforms, Fintechs and cryptocurrency businesses are all being underserved by current payment providers. This is due to the rigid and uncompromising approach that exists within payments, which is causing many innovative firms to fail to reach market.
Paybase is changing this. Through offering both technical flexibility and operational agility, Paybase not only supports businesses with more sophisticated payment requirements, but improves them, preparing them for the challenges that inevitably come with growth. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, Paybase has been recognised as one of the UK’s most disruptive businesses and a firm set to revolutionise the world of finance.
Anna Tsyupko is the CEO and co-founder of Paybase. Anna manages the overall direction and strategy at Paybase, working closely with clients and suppliers whilst overseeing all aspects of the business. She has a passion for payments and the opportunities that eMoney infrastructure can offer businesses that require more than a simple payment gateway. Her goal is to ensure all businesses have the freedom to build what they want to build by offering a truly flexible payment solution.
Anna is a 2018 winner of the Emerging Payments Association’s Outstanding Women in Payments award as well as previously being shortlisted by PayExpo Europe as one of the ‘Payments Power 10’. Anna has been asked to speak at Wired Money, MoneyLive Summit and Merchant Payment Ecosystem 2019.
What is your mission at Paybase?
Our mission is to raise the bar of what payments can and should do. Too many businesses are being failed by payments, often being told their innovative ideas are unfeasible, too expensive or simply not worth the payment providers’ time. Paybase takes a different approach. Our flexibility puts our clients in the driving seat, allowing them to build the product they want to build and improve their offering as they develop. Through this approach, we ensure that businesses make it to market, with the added ability to enhance their offering and build better products.
Has the rapid growth of the cryptocurrency industry changed your approach or who your target market is?
We were always aware of the fact that the problems surrounding payments automation and funds custody – the core problems we are solving here at Paybase – applied to cryptocurrency businesses (as well as platform businesses and FinTechs). That being said, when the cryptocurrency industry began to grow at such a staggering rate, we decided to educate ourselves fully and gain expertise in the crypto space. We are, of course, still learning, but we’re proud of what we can offer cryptocurrency businesses and we’re excited to partner with many more in the future!
Are you seeing interest in Paybase from crypto companies?
We are indeed! Many cryptocurrency businesses have issues relating to funds custody and payments automation and Paybase is very well equipped to solve these issues. We’re also able to provide regulatory cover for the fiat aspect of crypto businesses and assist them in meeting their compliance standards.
Can you tell us a little more about the regulatory cover you provide?
We’re able to offer regulatory cover for fiat payments, both in and out, through the creation of stored value accounts. This includes aspects such as Due Diligence which can be approached flexibly – allowing businesses to perform higher levels of Due Diligence on customers operating with particularly high values. As for transactions, Paybase provides a custom approach to financial crime prevention, automatically alerting clients to any behaviour that is unusual for their business. Paybase is even able to pause fiat transactions for review depending on rules that it establishes with each individual business, offering a highly accurate degree of security.
Due to the very nature of cryptocurrency, it’s not possible offer full regulatory coverage to crypto businesses. Regulation surrounding cryptocurrency is still being debated and established, and when the 5th Money Laundering Directive (5MLD) is introduced in the UK, it is very possible that cryptocurrency businesses may need to become regulated themselves. However, by providing full regulation for fiat services, we’re providing a high level of regulation on a core aspect of the crypto business model, and this is allowing more and more cryptocurrency businesses to get to market.
What makes the crypto to fiat boundary so tricky for crypto companies and how do you intend to provide a solution?
At the moment it can be very difficult for cryptocurrency businesses to work with any kind of banking partner, due to the industry being in its infancy and the relatively high level risk associated to it. This means that many businesses are finding it hard to allow people to both purchase crypto and withdraw it to their bank account using fiat currency. For those businesses that can, processing withdrawals is a resource-intense activity as payouts must be made manually to each individual bank account.
The Paybase solution is able to provide that interoperability, allowing customers to deposit funds, be given crypto in return and conversely, sell their crypto and withdraw funds to a bank account. Pay-ins and payouts are effected within minutes with no operational overhead required from the cryptocurrency business. This payment flow can also include cryptocurrency businesses taking an automatic commission for their services and requires no operational overhead from them. For these reasons working with us is very attractive for firms in this industry.
What’s been the biggest challenge and success for Paybase?
I think I’d have to give the same answer for both! Building an entirely new payment platform from scratch obviously involved a huge amount of work with multiple hurdles to overcome. But, with a collaborative and tech-first approach, we did it. We have built a solution that is truly different to everything else on the market and is helping innovative new businesses to succeed. We know there is still much more to be done, but we’re very proud of the steps we’ve taken.
Was it tough becoming FCA regulated?
I won’t sugarcoat it, the process is not an easy one. But this is not a complaint – it should be that way. There is a lot of regulation surrounding payments and rightly so, when dealing with money there can be no room for errors or weaknesses in security. Ultimately, it benefits you and your customers, so whilst it is tough, it’s wise to embrace the regulation. Thankfully, as we are regulated, we can absorb a lot of responsibility from our clients, allowing them to focus on running their business.
Whats on the Paybase roadmap for 2019?
Primarily, to expand into Europe, which we aim to do later this year. Whether we leave the EU with a deal or not, Paybase is in an equally strong position to help businesses grow across Europe – we are excited for the challenge! Aside from that, we’re continuously speaking to interesting new businesses and we’re looking forward to onboarding many more throughout 2019!
