Goldman Sachs has announced the launch of Transaction Banking (TxB) in the UK, expanding the business which was successfully launched in the US last year.

Transaction banking, also known as cash management and treasury services, is the business of providing solutions for clients’ day-to-day treasury operations as well as optimising working capital.

Since launching in the US last June, Goldman Sachs has attracted more than 250 clients, taking on over US$35bn in deposits and processing trillions of dollars through its systems. The launch of this business in the UK will bring a suite of new services to corporate and institutional clients via a digital-first cash management platform.

"We set a mission to provide a global transaction banking platform that is secure, easy to use, and nimble to help our clients run and grow their businesses," said Hari Moorthy, global head of TxB. "The growth of this business has exceeded our estimates and we are very excited to bring TxB to the UK to expand our client reach and streamline banking for multinational corporations with a presence in the US and the UK."

TxB aims to offer traditional products in a more streamlined and simplified manner by modernising treasury functions, and offering a simple, seamless, API-based experience. TxB will launch features over time, building up to a holistic client solution that is inclusive of payments in more than 125 currencies, deposit accounts, escrow services, liquidity solutions, full file and API connectivity and payroll.

"As we surveyed our clients we heard consistent feedback that there was scope to improve the cash management and payment processing set of services," commented Jim Esposito, global co-head of the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs. "Goldman Sachs is uniquely positioned to disrupt this market building on over 150 years of financial and risk management experience, yet unencumbered by legacy banking infrastructure. We see huge potential to grow this business in the UK and globally."

Accelerating growth

From starting a transaction bank from scratch last year, Goldman Sachs' treasury offering received a boost earlier this month from a payments partnership with Visa. Following the partnership, Goldman Sachs Transaction Banking clients can begin using Visa’s solutions right away through their existing connections, whether that be API, file or online web platform.

For high-value cross-border B2B payments, Goldman Sachs will leverage Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral B2B cross-border payments network, available in 97 markets globally, to help optimise payments for its corporate client base. Built from the ground up, Visa B2B Connect is designed to shorten time spent on cross-border corporate payments by facilitating transactions from the bank of origin directly to the beneficiary bank, helping significantly streamline settlement. 

The platform helps increase visibility and predictability into the transaction flow, giving Goldman Sachs clients an opportunity to track the status of payments from the originator bank to the destination bank in near real time, while improving transaction accuracy and simplifying the reconciliation process.

With Visa Direct Payouts capabilities, Goldman Sachs will bring push-to-account functionality for lower value, high volume cross-border business-to-small-business (B2SB) and business-to-consumer (B2C) payouts, eliminating complexities often associated with businesses having to manage multiple networks and intermediaries worldwide. Through a single connection to billions of endpoints in over 90 markets, Visa Direct Payouts expands the payment options Goldman Sachs can offer to its corporate clients.