Trustly finalises Ecospend acquisition
Online payment provider completes deal of London-headquartered technology firm following FCA approval
Trustly has completed the acquisition of UK-based technology payment platform Ecospend following approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the transaction will give Trustly the ability to reach over 80 banks and a consumer base of around 50 million in the UK.
This deal will also allow Trustly access to payments volume over £7.5bn.
Open banking firm Ecospend was founded in 2017, and in 2020, it won one of the largest-ever open banking contracts with HMRC.
Johan Tjärnberg, CEO of Trustly, said: “We are very excited that we have now officially closed the acquisition; this is an important milestone and is fully in line with Trustly’s ambitious target to be the game-changing market leader in the UK.”
James Hickman, Ecospend chief commercial officer, added: “The UK is the largest digital payments market in Europe and represents a huge opportunity for us. We have seen an incredible appetite from both consumers and businesses to embrace open banking and the simple and secure payments that it enables.
Last year, Trustly was hit with a SEK130m(£10.3m) fine over significant anti-money laundering (AML) failings by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.
The payments provider was found to have failed to follow AML regulations by not treating its end users as customers in accordance with the Swedish AML Act.