How Livitpay reduced global settlement times to a few hours and met client demand for USDT
Global money movement is at the heart of Livitpay's business. The UK-based fintech helps merchants to grow globally and sell locally, with mission-critical payment services, including gateways, prepaid cards, virtual accounts and payouts.
To deliver the best service, they need to connect together the right global infrastructure, explains Managing Director Joaquin Lasa: “Moving money is our bread and butter. Our challenge is creating the right flows between wallets so we can receive, trade and send funds. Of course, everything has to work and reliability is crucial, but we also depend on fast global settlement so we can pay out to clients when and where they need it.”
“Our challenge is creating the right flows between wallets so we can receive, trade and send funds... Everything has to work and reliability is crucial, but we also depend on fast global settlement so we can pay out to clients when and where they need it.”
The challenge: sluggish, legacy rails
Like many payment providers, Livitpay relied on wire transfers to help its merchants in the UK and Europe move money to and from emerging markets in India, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
But sluggish correspondent banking rails often left Livitpay’s clients waiting.
“If we want to move money from the UK to India for example, it has to go through Frankfurt first,” explains Lasa, “then on to a main bank in India, before it’s passed on to our client’s local bank. It might be 4 or 5 days until the client can access their money.”
Livitpay’s clients began to demand faster settlement, and many of them also began to ask to collect or be paid in stablecoins like USDT.
“We hadn’t used distributed ledger technology before, but internationally our clients were demanding it,” says Lasa. “To keep them we needed to offer it. This was not a ‘nice-to-have’ anymore, this was a necessity for our business.”
The solution: BVNK’s Global Settlement Network
Livitpay chose to partner with BVNK, using our Global Settlement Network to collect funds from merchants, collecting from local currencies and stablecoins and paying out in Euros, GBP or stablecoins from a BVNK Virtual Account.
To move large funds, Lasa and team are supported closely by BVNK’s Trading Desk, via instant messaging tools. The BVNK team provides competitive quotes, holds exchange rates and executes trades on Livitpay’s behalf.
“We’re happy with the rates we receive,” reports Lasa, “global settlement is now more cost-effective for us, and for our merchants, it’s faster – what used to take 4 or 5 days, is now just a few hours.”
“With BVNK, global settlement is now more cost-effective for us, and for our merchants it’s faster – what used to take 4 or 5 days, is now just a few hours.”
With emerging tech, customer support matters
During the provider selection process, Lasa explains that it all came down to customer support and experience with blockchain technology. Once the Livitpay team had shortlisted suppliers with the right licensing, regulatory approvals and technology, they began to see differences in service.
During early conversations, Livitipay struggled to get the right support and information from some providers.
“Since we’re new to this space, it’s crucial for us to work with a partner that is engaged and proactive in supporting us. The fast, detailed feedback that BVNK gave during our onboarding reassured us that we’d made the right choice by partnering with BVNK.”
“The fast, detailed feedback that BVNK gave during our onboarding reassured us that we’d made the right choice by partnering with them.”
So what would be Lasa’s advice for others looking to enter this space?
“Work with experts, with people who will support you. As an example BVNK’s trading team guided me through making test transactions for large trades since blockchain payments are irrevocable.
The details can make a real difference, so it’s paramount to evaluate the team and service behind the tech.”
