PhotonPay Partners With ClearBank to Expand Access to UK Payment Rails

PhotonPay — a global AI-powered digital financial infrastructure provider — has announced a strategic partnership with UK-based ClearBank, granting the fintech indirect access to key UK payment schemes and clearing services. The collaboration represents a major step forward in PhotonPay’s global expansion strategy, enabling its business customers to tap into real-time UK payment rails for faster settlement, enhanced liquidity management, and broader payment capabilities.

Through this collaboration, PhotonPay will integrate with ClearBank’s API-based banking infrastructure and real-time clearing services, empowering businesses with deeper access to the UK’s Faster Payments, BACS and CHAPS networks as well as virtual account services and Confirmation of Payee (CoP) functionality — all traditionally accessible only through regulated banking partners.

This article explains what the partnership means for UK payments, global fintech expansion, and how embedded banking infrastructure is reshaping the landscape of financial services.

Why This Partnership Matters

The UK’s payments ecosystem is among the most advanced in the world, featuring high-speed clearing systems such as:

• Faster Payments — near-instant settlement for low-value retail and business transfers;
• BACS — batch-based clearing for direct debits and credits;
• CHAPS — high-value real-time gross settlement (RTGS) for same-day large transfers.

Traditionally, access to these rails has been restricted to licensed banks and institutions. Fintechs and payment service providers often rely on partners or licensed sponsors to interact with such schemes. Through its tie-up with ClearBank — an authorised clearing bank regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the **Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) — PhotonPay overcomes this barrier.

PhotonPay gains indirect access to these rails via ClearBank’s embedded banking solutions, allowing it to:

• Issue named virtual GBP accounts for business customers;
• Support GBP collections, settlements and payouts;
• Enable Confirmation of Payee (CoP) functionality for secure UK payments;
• Accelerate settlement speeds and provide more localised control.

This means that companies using PhotonPay can benefit from UK-level payments capabilities without needing their own direct banking licences — a significant operational and regulatory advantage.

How It Works: Connecting Fintech With Banking Rails

ClearBank’s platform acts as an infrastructure layer for fintechs and businesses looking to embed regulated UK payment services into their own products. By integrating with ClearBank’s APIs, PhotonPay will be able to:

• Access Faster Payments — for near-instant transfers between UK accounts;
• Utilise BACS — for scheduled budgeted payments and collections;
• Leverage CHAPS — for high-value same-day payments;
• Offer virtual accounts — enabling business customers to have individual, named accounts for better liquidity management;
• Provide CoP support — improving payment security by validating beneficiary details.

These features enhance PhotonPay’s core proposition as a global financial infrastructure provider — allowing it to offer more comprehensive, region-specific payment services on a single global platform.

PhotonPay’s Growth and Strategic Vision

Founded in 2015, PhotonPay has positioned itself as a global digital payments and financial infrastructure provider, supporting businesses across more than 200 countries and regions. The company delivers scalable solutions such as global accounts, card issuing, embedded finance, and international payments.

Earlier in January 2026, PhotonPay also successfully closed a Series B funding round worth tens of millions of dollars, led by IDG Capital with participation from Hillhouse Investment, Enlight Capital, Lightspeed Faction and Shoplazza — underscoring investor confidence in its stablecoin-centric payment architecture and global expansion strategy.

The ClearBank partnership aligns with PhotonPay’s broader strategic goal to empower business customers with localised payment capabilities worldwide, while maintaining a unified global infrastructure.

ClearBank: Embedded Banking and Real-Time Rails Enablement

ClearBank is a technology-enabled clearing bank in the UK that focuses on providing embedded banking and real-time clearing services to fintech firms and non-bank entities. Its infrastructure enables access to traditional payment systems through modern API interfaces — lowering the technical and regulatory barriers that often prevent fintechs from interacting directly with legacy banking rails.

ClearBank’s platform enables fintech partners to:

• Issue virtual accounts and IBANs;
• Connect to high-speed payment networks;
• Offer regulated banking services like CoP;
• Support multi-currency operations with global expansion potential.

In the PhotonPay case, ClearBank’s platform functions as the “gateway” that connects an innovative fintech offering to the established UK payments ecosystem — delivering both regulatory compliance and technical connectivity.

What Businesses Get From the Partnership

Faster Settlement and Localised Payment Experience

By leveraging UK payment rails, PhotonPay’s business customers will experience:

• Quicker settlement times compared with traditional correspondent banking setups;
• Real-time liquidity movement and cash flow optimisation;
• Reduced dependence on intermediary banks for UK payments.

This is particularly valuable for businesses with operations or customers in the UK — especially those needing rapid GBP settlements, payroll processing, payouts, or collections.

Greater Operational Control and Compliance

Access to functionalities like Confirmation of Payee (CoP) means that PhotonPay’s customers benefit from enhanced fraud prevention and payment validation, aligning with UK regulatory expectations and helping to mitigate misrouted or fraudulent payments.

Named virtual accounts also give businesses clearer financial visibility and control — as each counterparty can be assigned an individual, identifiable account instead of relying on pooled or generic settlement accounts.

Industry Impact: Fintech Meets Regulated Banking Rails

The partnership signals a continued trend in fintech — where companies leverage specialised banks’ licences and infrastructure to deliver local payment experiences at scale.

Regulated banks such as ClearBank are increasingly acting as infrastructure providers for non-bank fintech players, offering:

• Regulatory compliance frameworks;
• Real-time access to payment schemes;
• Scalability across markets;
• Virtual account and settlement services.

For fintech companies like PhotonPay, this model accelerates time-to-market for advanced payments features without the cost and complexity of obtaining separate banking licences in each market.

This approach is particularly relevant in the UK — a mature payments hub with highly regulated and robust payment systems — where digital businesses need both compliance and performance.

Looking Ahead: Europe Expansion and Beyond

PhotonPay has indicated that this UK payments capability lays a foundation for broader European expansion in 2026 and beyond. With access to local rails in a major financial centre, the company is better positioned to:

• Support UK-based businesses and those selling into the UK;
• Expand into European payment rails such as SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) through future integrations;
• Provide integrated cross-border payment services with local features across regions.

As the fintech ecosystem continues to evolve, the ability to combine global reach with local execution will be a key differentiator for infrastructure providers like PhotonPay.

Conclusion

PhotonPay’s partnership with ClearBank marks a significant milestone in the fintech’s expansion journey, giving its business customers real-time access to UK payment rails and enhanced settlement capabilities. With virtual account issuance, GBP collections, payouts and CoP functionality enabled via ClearBank’s API-based platform, PhotonPay can now deliver a more localised and efficient payment experience — while laying groundwork for future European and global growth.

This collaboration exemplifies how fintechs and regulated banks can work together to bridge traditional banking infrastructure with innovation-driven global financial services — unlocking new opportunities for businesses and accelerating the adoption of modern payment technologies.

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