Swedish FinTech company, Trustly, a global leader in Online Banking Payments, has acquired Ecospend, a UK-based Open Banking payments platform, following Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approval obtained for them by international law firm Osborne Clarke.
Working alongside corporate counsel, Osborne Clarke's payments and Open Banking specialists provided regulatory support to Trustly. The Osborne Clarke team, including Associate Director Poppy Pite, Legal Director Clare Burman and Paralegal Joanna Bright (from the payments team) and IT outsourcing specialist, Associate Director Cathy Han, undertook regulatory due diligence, documented pre-completion commercial arrangements and successfully guided Trustly through the FCA approvals required for the change in control and the appointment of PSD Individuals to the board of Ecospend.
Paul Anning, Partner at Osborne Clarke, commented: "We've been supporting Trustly for several years and we were delighted when they came to us for the regulatory advice they needed for this acquisition. It was a pleasure working with the Trustly team as they accelerate their expansion in the UK market".
Founded in 2008, Trustly is a global leader in Online Banking Payments. The company's digital account-to-account platform redefines the speed, simplicity and security of payments, linking some of the world’s most prominent merchants with consumers directly from their online banking accounts.
Founded in 2017, Ecospend specialises in pay-by-bank payments across a range of industries and holds a key contract with UK government tax authority, HMRC.
The acquisition will see Trustly become one of the leading Open Banking payments providers in the UK. The companies' combined capabilities will feature connectivity with over 80 banks, an extensive consumer reach with more than 50 million consumers and a strong payments volume of over £7.5 billion for 2022.
Osborne Clarke's market-leading, multi-disciplinary and international payments team forms part of its wider FinTech practice. In this space Osborne Clarke advises clients ranging from start-ups, scale-ups/growth businesses and FinTech unicorns to challenger banks, payments, retail and consumer finance firms, platforms, large corporates and institutions as well as lenders, investors and industry bodies and regulators.
