A year of solid growth for independent payments specialist

Independent payments broker Accept Cards, which works with some of the biggest names in financial services, has reported a 34% pre-tax profit uplift in its latest accounts.

During the financial year ended February 29 2024, pre-tax profits rose to £804,000 up 34% from £600,000 in the previous year.

Elland-headquartered Accept Cards secured a turnover of £2.3m, 7% up from £2.1m in the previous year.

Operating nationally, the firm is a whole-of-market broker offering bespoke solutions and working with more than 45 partners including Handelsbanken, Metro Bank, Lloyds Cardnet, Barclaycard, Square, Zettle and WorldPay.

It helped 2,316 new businesses and its customer base process more than £2bn card transactions during the financial year. The company also reduced processing costs for the businesses it works with by an average of 35.3%.

The business was founded by CEO Richard Bradley in 2005 and confirmed it had become employee-owned in January this year in a transaction understood to be the first of its kind in the UK independent payments sector.

Accept Cards made a key new appointment during the 12 month period. Mark Firth joined as senior partnerships and corporate sales manager. He has more than 25 years of industry experience having previously worked at Barclays, Lloyds and WorldPay.

Bradley said: “It’s fantastic to report a further year of growth. This has been possible because of our hard working and knowledgeable team, who are exceptional at building and maintaining trusting relationships with partners and clients to ensure we offer the best payments technology.

“Innovation has also been key to our continued growth. As the original disrupter in the sector it’s our role to be ahead of the curve.

“Looking ahead, our next market shake up in H2 will see us continue to help optimise more customer journeys and improve business efficiencies when implementing and reviewing payments solutions.

“Through the economic headwinds in recent years, we’ve seen owners and management teams further scrutinise their payments solutions to optimise their businesses.

“We help them to navigate this complex, regulated and ever-changing area and expect demand to continue.”