Allianz Trade, Santander CIB & Two partnered to develop a new B2B BNPL solution
Allianz Trade, the world leader in trade credit insurance, Two, the pioneering business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce payments platform, and Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB), one of the top trade finance banks in the banking sector, have partnered to provide the first global B2B Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) solution for large multinational corporates. This is the first partnership of its kind. The companies have combined Allianz Trade’s more than 100 years’ experience in trade credit insurance with Two’s cutting-edge B2B BNPL technology and Santander CIB’s capabilities and expertise in tailor-made working capital solutions with more than EUR +300Bn of turnover.
The result is a game changer product for global online B2B commerce. Corporates now have a one-stop solution to offer business buyers instant deferred payments at checkout. With a single API integration powered by Two, Santander CIB finances upfront payments to sellers and credit terms to buyers globally while Allianz Trade protects the whole value chain against non-payment risk (e.g. including credit risk). Sellers will have global multi-currency support to dramatically reduce the need for complex operating models with multiple providers across technology, trade insurance, and trade credit.
“We’re very proud to join forces with Two and Santander CIB to provide a complete deferred payment solution for B2B e-commerce. Our solution will be distributed worldwide and aims to allow large corporates to develop their online sales by offering deferred payments to existing and new customers, without being exposed to non-payment risks, while benefiting from immediate and guaranteed payments. It is a turnkey solution combining the very best of our three firms, easy to set up and improving both seller revenue and user experience”, explains François Burtin, global head of e-commerce at Allianz Trade.
Marsh Spain acted as the trade credit insurance broker. “At Marsh Spain, we are very pleased to be at the forefront of this value proposition supporting our partners in their continuous development of innovative solutions” adds Ana Meca Diez, head of financial risks and specialties at Marsh Spain.
The perfect payment – financing – insurance match to support large corporates online expansion
Each member of this partnership contributes to the solution with its own expertise: Two is taking care of the payment technology, Santander CIB is financing upfront payment to seller and credit to buyers and Allianz Trade is protecting the whole value chain against non-payment risk.
As part of this partnership, Allianz Trade assesses credit requests instantly through its API (Application Programming Interface) thanks to its large and deep database, which contains commercial, financial and strategic information about more than 80 million corporates worldwide. This will help Santander CIB make financing decisions on the spot. All this process is streamlined and set up through Two’s BNPL technology. Everything happens in a fraction of a second, without the end user even realizing it.
“The fact that buyers have to use personal or corporate credit cards is still hindering B2B transactions. Enabling businesses to maintain their payment habits within 30 or 60 days of their invoices, in an e-commerce environment will be a big differentiator for sellers, while adding a major game changer: all concerns about non-payment risk are now removed, and their cash flow is preserved at all times. Additionally, the solution is instant and seamless which makes it really powerful for a firm dealing with huge sales volumes across different countries. Thanks to the service we’ve created along with Allianz Trade, Two and Marsh Spain, large corporates will now be able to enjoy the BNPL product to grow their online activity safely and globally”, adds Ignacio Frutos Lopez, global head receivables at Banco Santander CIB.
This new B2B BNPL solution allows Santander to cover the full spectrum of BNPL products since it complements Zinia, the business to consumer (B2C) BNPL solution launched by Santander’s Digital Consumer Bank with a successful implementation in Germany and the Netherlands over the past year.
A partnership which will foster the development of online B2B trade
Allianz Trade and Two had partnered earlier this year to offer a B2B BNPL solution for SMEs’ in the UK, while at the same time Allianz Trade and Santander were working on large BNPL projects. The large corporate segment is currently undertaking major online projects to grow B2B e-commerce sales and improve margins. However, they lack the instant and seamless payments technology to facilitate B2B sales at a global level. Naturally, Santander, Two, and Allianz Trade decided to extend their partnership to provide a unique product that can serve large global corporates.
“At Two we are obsessed about delivering seamless ordering and buying for B2B buyers while removing and automating the operational processes for sellers.. Business buying is not a one-size fits all and our product streamlines key steps in the journey (e.g. instant onboarding, ordering, underwriting, invoice distribution, payments, reconciliation) so that sellers do what they do best while we abstract the pain points of drop-offs, working capital tie up, risk, and manual work. Our ambitions are at a global scale, so we decided to take our partnership with Allianz Trade further by collaborating with Santander CIB, combining two powerhouses in insurance and banking to create a unique and innovative solution dedicated to large corporates”, ends Stavros Tamvakakis, co-founder of Two.
