Meet the partner: Volt

At BR-DGE we are so proud to be scaling an independent payment orchestration platform which enables merchants to connect and collaborate with a global marketplace of payment services through one single integration.

Our partners play a vital role in the payment journey, supporting merchants like you to deliver a frictionless, intuitive payment experience for customers, from fraud detection tools through to alternative payment choices.

In our Meet the Partner series, we showcase how we join forces with our key partners, what products or functionality is available and how you can benefit from our broad range of integrations.

In this series, we sat down with Volt to find out more about their real-time payment solution, providing global access to account-to-account payments. We discuss what makes Volt unique, how we partner together with merchants and the key milestones ahead for Volt's growth trajectory.

1. Please provide an overview of your organisation and what you do.

Volt is building the first global real-time payment network. We’re doing this by uniting the world’s real-time payment systems (such as Faster Payments in the UK and Pix in Brazil) to a single standard and point of access, thus enabling merchants to access a world of instant account-to-account payments. What we do is powered by open banking; as a licensed third-party provider, shoppers grant us access to their bank account to make a payment on their behalf.

2. How do Volt work in partnership with BR-DGE?

We give BR-DGE merchants access to best-in-class open banking infrastructure. Aside from payment initiation services, merchants can access our leading fraud-prevention tool, Circuit Breaker. This enables them to set rules, based on their needs, which intelligently determine whether incoming transactions are fraudulent. Since it was launched, Circuit Breaker has analysed more than three million payments and blocked more than 45,000 suspicious payments.

3. Explain how the Volt solution works.

Bank connectivity and payment orchestration are at the heart of what we do. We’re unique in that we have multiple connections to 1,800+ banks around the world, which enables us to smart route payments via the strongest connection and optimise conversion. Because payments are account to account, minus any intermediaries, they settle instantly. For shoppers, the payment experience is essentially the same wherever in the world they are - they choose ‘Pay by Bank’ at checkout, select their bank, and complete their payment within their banking app.

4. What makes Volt different to others in your area of speciality? What is your market USP?

Our global reach and product depth. We’re the only open banking provider that’s harmonising disparate, domestic real-time payment networks - and subsequently creating a consistent payment experience for shoppers. By also focusing on value-add products such as Circuit Breaker, we’re moving closer to feature parity with cards. With our product capabilities evolving at lightning speed, we believe that this is what sets us apart.

5. How was your organisation founded? What was the market need?

We were founded by three payments veterans – Tom Greenwood (formerly of IFX Payments), Steffen Vollert (Adyen) and Jordan Lawrence (PCN) – in 2019, not long after PSD2. With the ground rules for open banking across Europe set, it was clear to our founders that there was an opportunity to build something that wasn’t just groundbreaking in terms of payment technology, but which addressed the practical needs of merchants. Many had become frustrated by the high costs of accepting card payments, and their slow settlement times. Open banking suddenly had the potential to overcome these frustrations - but the right people were needed for this potential to be realised.

6. What is your biggest benefit to your clients?

For partners, the ability to easily integrate best-in-class open banking infrastructure. For merchants, the key benefits are instant settlements, no chargebacks, optimised conversion and the elimination of card fraud. As we’re global, we also give them the opportunity to expand into new markets - via the same integration.

7. How would you describe organisation’s role in the wider payment Ecosystem?

We’re naturally huge believers in open banking and its transformative impact for payments, but we also recognise that it’s the first step towards open finance. We’re keen to play an active role in open banking’s evolution, and to make sure merchants and consumers benefit, which is why we’re proud to be a founding member of the Open Finance Association.

Open banking as a phenomenon enables us to have an active role in the evolution of real-time payments. It’s becoming increasingly clear that standardisation is key to their success, and this really is our core reason for existing.

8. What current trends in digital payments are impacting your organisation?

We’re watching with interest the hockey-stick growth of account-to-account payments around the world. They’re fast becoming a preferred payment method in the Netherlands, Germany and Brazil, where Pix has been a resounding success. We believe that open banking essentially democratises payments, and it’s encouraging to see that consumers recognise this. Adoption figures speak for themselves.

We’re also seeing far more proactivity and positivity from merchants. Before PSD2, many were resigned to the problems that card infrastructure poses. Now, though, these are being challenged – and overcome – by real-time payments. Merchants are increasingly unwilling to settle for long settlement times or high interchange fees – because they no longer have to.

9. What are your key focuses for the next 3/6/12 months?

Now that we’ve closed our Series B funding round, we’ll be focusing on expanding our geographic reach and deepening our product capabilities in existing markets. There are lots of exciting things in the pipeline, so watch this space.

To find out about our partnership with Volt, check out our latest joint release.

For more information on how you can connect with Volt and maximise the partnership through BR-DGE’s orchestration suite, get in touch with the team.