Santander invests £50M in Ebury
- Santander said on April 30 it will put £50 million into Ebury inside a roughly £550 million financing led by Centerbridge Partners. - The deal leaves Santander with a 55% stake and is expected to add about 4 basis points to the group’s CET1 capital ratio. - It tightens Santander’s grip on a fast-growing SME payments platform after Ebury’s mooted London IPO path appeared to cool.
Cross-border payments is one of those banking businesses that sounds back-office and dull — until you notice how much small exporters and importers depend on it. That is the lane Santander is leaning into with Ebury, the fintech it already controls. On April 30, Santander said it will invest £50 million in Ebury as part of funding rounds totaling about £550 million, with Centerbridge Partners leading alongside existing investors. The point is simple: keep scaling the platform, keep the clients inside the Santander ecosystem, and get more serious about international payments for small and midsize businesses. (santander.com) ### What is Ebury, exactly? Ebury is a payments and trade-finance platform built for businesses that need to move money across borders, manage foreign-exchange risk, and handle international collections and pay(santander.com)ized, margins can be good, and software matters as much as balance sheet. Ebury operates in 30 regulated markets, serves more than 27,000 businesses, and supports payments in more than 140 currencies across 160 countries. (santander.com) ### What changed today? The new piece is not just that fresh money is coming in. It is that Santander is adding another £50 million of its own and will remain majority owner with a 55% stake once the transactio(santander.com)capital raise and a control story — Santander is not stepping back from Ebury, it is tightening the relationship. (santander.com) ### Why does 55% matter? Because majority ownership changes the feel of the asset. A bank can treat a minority fintech stake like an option. A 55% holding says something else — this is core infrastructure. Sant(santander.com) part of Santander’s long-term payments machine rather than a standalone company waiting for a quick exit. (santander.com) ### Why bring in Centerbridge? Because growth capital still matters, but fintech funding is more selective than it was a few years ago. Centerbridge brings outside validation and more money without forcing Sant(santander.com)financing burden and adding another heavyweight name to the cap table. (santander.com) ### Where does this fit inside Santander? Inside Santander, payments is a bigger strategic theme, not a side project. Ebury sits in Santander Payments Solutions, a business the company says is targeting annual (santander.com)ep putting money behind Ebury — this is one of the cleaner growth stories inside a mature banking group. (bebeez.eu) ### What happened to the IPO idea? Ebury had been linked to a possible London listing, with reports in 2025 suggesting a flotation that could value the company around £2 billion. Today’s funding does not kill that idea, but it does remove urgenc(bebeez.eu)g an IPO into a shaky window. (financemagnates.com) ### Why does the CET1 detail matter? Santander said the transactions should have a positive impact of about 4 basis points on its group CET1 ratio. That is a small number, but banks care a lot about small capital moves. The interesting part is that Santander is f(financemagnates.com)ntech bets can become expensive distractions. (santander.com) ### Bottom line? This is Santander putting a bigger flag in cross-border business payments. Ebury gets growth money and a stronger owner. Santander gets more control over a platform that could help it win stickier international SME business — and it gets to do that without rushing Ebury back toward the public market. (santander.com)
