IAM Analyst

How emoni is building payment services for compliance-intensive businesses with ClearBank Europe. * Payments * 02.10.2026 02:25 pm emoni is a Dutch electronic money institution (EMI) founded to address a persistent challenge in the European financial services market, namely supporting compliance-intensive businesses. For these businesses, access to banking services is fundamental to their ability to trade, serve customers, and grow with confidence. Yet in practice, many are frequently declined, de-risked, or underserved by traditional banks and EMIs, as Eran ten Napel, Founder and CEO of emoni, explains: "There is a huge need in this space for a platform that enables these businesses to bank without compromising security, user experience, settlement times, wider global reach, and genuine human support. We provide businesses with the tools they need to send, receive, hold, and convert funds globally." With a clear vision, emoni began its EMI licence application with De Nederlandsche Bank. That required finding an agency banking partner that combined strong regulatory standards with a practical understanding of fintechs, EMIs, and compliance-led business models. Collaborating with ClearBank emoni chose ClearBank because it understood both the opportunity and the complexity of serving compliance-intensive businesses. As a fintech bank with a strong reputation for supporting fintechs and EMIs, ClearBank aligned with emoni's risk appetite, compliance expectations, and growth ambitions. The decision was about more than technical capability. ClearBank provided the infrastructure, regulatory confidence, and relationship-led support that emoni needed to build a strong foundation for launch and long-term growth. "ClearBank has a strong reputation for supporting fintechs and EMIs. ClearBank and emoni share a fully aligned risk appetite; the compliance standards are top-notch, and the account managers are exceptional. ClearBank provides us with everything required to succeed," comments ten Napel. "ClearBank offers exactly what we need: security, a Dutch banking partner that truly understands fintechs, and strong, reliable products built for scale. But above all, it's the people. The day-to-day support, the responsiveness, and the willingness to engage deeply with our business make ClearBank the right partner for us." Eran ten Napel, Founder and CEO of emoni Supporting a new fintech through the EMI licence process and beyond ClearBank played a pivotal role in supporting emoni's successful EMI licence application, with its Agency Banking solution delivering safeguarding accounts that hold its customers' funds separate from the firm's own money. These accounts are complemented by connectivity to SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Instant, and T2, enabling emoni to offer its clients comprehensive payment options. "ClearBank supports and understands our vision and has supported both our licence application and our go-to-market strategy. That allowed us to enter the market quickly and confidently," explains ten Napel. "The partnership has reduced operational friction, accelerated our go-to-market timeline, and given us a banking foundation that supports growth without adding unnecessary operational overhead." With the right banking infrastructure in place, and its EMI licence secured in March 2026, emoni is confident it can scale its operations with robust, scalable API-based access to the European payments infrastructure it needs to serve its growing customer base. "Our customers rely on ClearBank's SEPA rails as their primary EU banking rail. The service is reliable, consistently available, and delivers exactly what our customers need for seamless European payments," ten Napel says. A partnership built on collaboration Throughout the initial phase and through to go live, the quality of the relationship has stood out. For emoni, the openness, curiosity, and consistency of the ClearBank team have been central to creating trust and practical collaboration. "True partnerships are rare. We often label transactional relationships as 'partnerships,' even when they aren't. ClearBank is different. What stands out is the people: the CEO, CFO, and account management teams who consistently show up with openness, curiosity, and a genuine desire to collaborate. They listen, exchange ideas, and work with us to develop products. This is what makes our relationship with ClearBank a real partnership." Eran ten Napel, Founder and CEO of emoni With ClearBank as its banking partner, emoni has a platform for growth that combines strong compliance standards, reliable infrastructure, and a relationship built on shared ambition. "For any EMI in Europe seeking a truly fintech-oriented banking partner, ClearBank stands out. They are not just a provider - they are a genuine partner committed to your success," ten Napel concludes.

PingPong taps ClearBank to expand UK payments business. ClearBank's agency banking setup helps PingPong offer merchants faster reconciliation and more predictable payment flows. Get the hottest Fintech Singapore News once a month in your Inbox PingPong is a leading global fintech founded in New York in 2015 and headquartered in Hangzhou, China, with a singular vision: to provide seamless cross-border payment services to e-commerce and enterprise clients. Today, it has 40 offices globally and processes a cumulative total of $350 billion in payment value. With ambitious plans to deliver modern UK payment services to an expanding and diverse customer base, PingPong received its Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence from the FCA in 2023. This provided the foundations to build its UK business, serving existing ecommerce customers transacting in the UK, and win new business from UK-based firms. To achieve that vision, PingPong needed more than basic account provision. It required a technology-focused banking partner that could support complex payment processing, reliable scheme connectivity and scalable customer account management, without slowing the business down as volumes increased. "We selected ClearBank because of its market reputation for reliability, innovative technology and API-led philosophy and its commitment to the highest standards for regulatory compliance. The ClearBank engagement was highly consultative, and they really understood the industry. We didn't have all the answers, but it was clear they had a lot of experience working with firms like us that are EMIs wanting to deliver a bank-level experience to our end customers." explains Alex Young, Head of FI Partnerships, Europe and Americas at PingPong. Virtual accounts supporting operational flexibility and efficiency. UK EMIs have many potential partners for accounts and payment services. ClearBank stood out because it combined modern banking infrastructure with a track record of supporting fintechs at every stage of their journey. PingPong also needed an efficient model for account setup and management, which ClearBank delivers through its Virtual GBP accounts. This allows PingPong to open millions of accounts under its brand and sort code, providing each customer with its own addressable vIBAN (virtual International Bank Account Number), with no limit on the number of logic layers it can create within its ledger. This structure enables PingPong to support many customers through one or a small number of real accounts, giving the company clear visibility of where funds are held for each customer while reducing the cost and complexity of managing individual real accounts for all of them. "What agency banking gives us is a unique sort code for our UK entity, IBANs for our customers, each with a named account and, as a result, they really feel as though they're dealing with an institution. The flexibility of the agency bank infrastructure that ClearBank brings allows us to manage our customer expectations and deliver the solutions they need," Young explains. Ensuring payment performance, visibility and certainty. These accounts are complemented with access to the UK's payment schemes Faster Payment System (FPS), CHAPS and Bacs. That connectivity supports a business model built around real-time payments and fund reconciliation, giving customers the certainty they need to make informed business decisions. "We have a diverse customer base, but they all need one thing - and CFOs in larger enterprise customers in particular - which is secure, predictable payments. The API-based services that ClearBank delivers to PingPong allow our customers to make instant decisions. The speed of reconciliation and having that information as real-time as possible is key to our business model and ensuring we deliver UK payments to our customers around the globe." Young explains. By accessing UK payment schemes through ClearBank, PingPong can offer customers a range of payment options without taking on the operational cost and complexity of becoming a direct participant. It also avoids the ongoing capital investment required to maintain those connections, deliver the uptime customers expect, and prepare for scheme updates. ClearBank is also providing PingPong with a Confirmation of Payee (CoP) service for FPS, which checks payees' details in real time before a payment is made. As an overlay service that runs separately from the UK payment schemes, CoP adds another layer of trust by helping reduce the risk of fraud and misdirected payments. "Risk and compliance are at the heart of everything we do. So having that visibility and connectivity with Confirmation of Payee really adds an important layer of security, which is important to us. And it means we're providing an end-to-end payment solution in the UK," Young concludes. For global merchants, slow settlement and fragmented payment infrastructure can create uncertainty at the exact moment visibility matters most. PingPong has built its business around solving that challenge, and in the UK, ClearBank's Agency Banking solution is helping it deliver faster, more secure and more scalable payment services to customers around the world.