International banking connectivity at Agicap

Context

Agicap, a treasury fintech, started out 100% European (France and Germany), with no international banking connectivity. The first clients expanding internationally paid through “centralizing banks”: a detour through a French bank, relayed via SWIFT. It worked, but it was expensive and slow to set up.

The trigger

Clients with US subsidiaries were paying $10 to $15 per domestic wire, when an ACH transfer costs $0.50. That triggered the build of country-specific formats, SWIFT, and Host-to-Host connections (direct SFTP with the bank).

The real obstacle

The first US launch failed: connectivity was too expensive against the US market. A no-go decision followed, then a year of rebuilding rather than patching. The direct ACH rail was then rebuilt, and the model replicated country by country.

What it actually took

Leading complex connections

Leading international banking connections (SWIFT, Host-to-Host) for strategic clients in beta — from technical scoping with the bank through to putting the payment flow into production.

Building a dedicated team

Building and managing a team dedicated to complex banking connections, able to run several country projects in parallel with different banks and regulatory constraints.

Tracking tools & bank mapping

Building pipeline-tracking tools and an international banking map, to visualize the status of each connection and prioritize the highest-stakes files.

Internal knowledge base

Building an internal knowledge base to standardize processes — capitalizing on each banking connection set up to speed up the next one and make knowledge transfer reliable.

Working with Product

Close collaboration with the Product team on the SWIFT/H2H roadmap, to surface field constraints and prioritize the developments that unblock the most connections.