Ebury and Santander join forces in Germany to increase support for SMEs

Written by
Sophie Scheltema
Written by
Sophie Scheltema
  • Partnership between one of the largest banks in the world and a leading global fintech to support businesses in Germany with international trade
  • First formal partnership between the two parties since Banco Santander invested approximately €400m in Ebury in 2020 to improve services for SMEs

Düsseldorf, Germany: Ebury and Santander Germany are delighted to announce a new

partnership to offer businesses in Germany a complete international finance solution to

simplify international trade. By joining forces in Germany, clients will benefit from their

combined services allowing them to trade with anyone from anywhere. The partnership has

already been successfully trialled by a number of clients.

The onboarding process for clients can be reduced to as little as 24 hours due to data and

client sharing between the two businesses to further simplify trading operations and improve

the client experience.

The partnership will integrate the advantages of one of the largest and most successful

banks in the world with the agility and specialist technology of a fintech. It follows Banco

Santander’s €400m investment in Ebury in 2020, part of the bank’s digital strategy for

providing SMEs with the necessary tools for their international expansion through global

trade finance services. Santander, via PagoNxt, a technology-focused global payment

fintech, owns 50.1% of Ebury.

Ebury, a leading fintech, simplifies cross-border trade by offering international transactions,

FX hedging and collection account solutions for businesses while Banco Santander, a leading

retail and commercial bank in Europe and the Americas, offers a range of lending,

transactional services and trade finance solutions to SMEs among other things.

Nils Hennemann, Country Manager of Ebury Germany, commented: “We are delighted to

be partnering with Santander to improve services for businesses in Germany who want to

trade internationally. Combining forces will allow clients to benefit from Ebury’s agility as a

fintech and its specialist international transaction services alongside Santander’s significant

lending capabilities. Together, we expect this to be the start of a deep and enduring

partnership and we are already looking at additional ways of supporting SMEs in Germany

and delivering a superior customer experience via this partnership.”

Peter Stindt, Head of Business and Corporate Banking of Santander Germany,

commented: “This collaboration heralds a major step forward for SMEs in Germany as we

join our strong lending capabilities and banking solutions with Ebury’s specialist technology to

create a wholesale banking platform to make international trade more straightforward.

Banco Santander’s investment via PagoNxt in Ebury last year is evidence of the potential we

see from harnessing the abilities of traditional banks and best-in-class fintechs. This

partnership is a concrete example of how bringing our joint propositions together ensures that

businesses have the best possible chance of success and growth in their trading activities."

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