UK Cashflows Introduces Anytime Settlement To Advance Payments

U.K.-based merchant payments solutions platform Cashflows has introduced Anytime Settlement, a new service that enables businesses to access funds in a matter of hours following a transaction, instead of the industry average of three working days, according to a Thursday (Feb. 4) press release.

“2020 was the most challenging year for businesses that we’ve seen for decades and 2021 doesn’t seem like it will be much easier. We all know that the payments industry has long been hindered by archaic processes and infrastructure,” Cashflows CEO Amanda Mesler said in the release.

Mesler added that the past year’s events have highlighted the call for improvement in order to help small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) have “the best possible chance to thrive in difficult circumstances.”

Anytime Settlement gives businesses “access to what is already theirs, whenever they need it,” she said. “With so much outside business leaders’ control, we believe they should at least have freedom over how they manage their funds.”

Some 250,000 businesses are tracking to shutter this year without support, per the release. Anytime Settlement strives to enable merchants to have more control of their funds as cash flow challenges continue.

Cashflows said research it conducted late last year found 42 percent of U.K. retail and financial services firms said having more predictable cash flow is important to their business — compared with 32 percent of firms saying that before the pandemic. Some 67 percent said their businesses were adversely affected by COVID-19, with 76 percent saying “the future has been irrevocably changed.”

The research found some 15 percent of businesses don’t feel in control of their payments, and more than half said that being able to control remittances would offer some security. Some 63 percent of those in financial services said the same.

A November collaboration between PYMNTS and Visa indicates that Main Street small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have been making use of using digital tools to compensate for some of the sales lost to foot traffic, but many are also worried about a cash crunch.