Crown Agents Bank (CAB) is a UK-regulated FX and payments service provider, specializing in global FX and cross-border payments for hard-to-reach markets. Founded nearly two centuries ago as part of the UK Government and now part of the public CAB Payments Group, CAB connects its clients to underserved geographies rapidly, consistently, and equitably so money can move efficiently to where it’s needed. Offering a single API for all FX and cross-border payments, CAB has an extensive global reach with partners in 100+ markets and currencies across 700+ currency pairs. CAB is also one of the first banks to achieve B Corporation™ status.
The Alliance spoke with Group CEO Designate Neeraj Kapur to learn more about this unique business model and how it supports women’s financial inclusion.
Alliance: For the benefit of our global readership, can you please share Crown Agents Bank’s (CAB) market position and business model?
CAB: Crown Agents Bank is not your ordinary bank. We specialize primarily in B2B foreign exchange and payments for hard-to-reach markets, with a client pool comprising international development organizations, multilateral development banks, governments, central banks, cutting edge fintechs and remittance providers. We are part of the vital connective tissue that keeps Global South economies connected to international financial services, be that for governments servicing international debt obligations, NGOS moving funds for life-saving humanitarian services or for organizations moving funds home for people working abroad.
Our model is fundamentally one of partnership and network, sourcing our liquidity from the local banks and working to be a positive participant in the local sector, and sharing our best practice and expertise with our partners—especially in compliance and anti-financial crime processes. We are always working to provide more payment rails and new currency pairs that support our clients, especially those in the development sector, to deliver transformative projects for communities.
Historically we have mostly worked in Africa and the Caribbean, but we are increasingly expanding into Latin American and Asian markets. In a world where many international banks have been de-risking from Global South markets, CAB is extremely proud to have kept lower-income economies at the heart of what we do.
Alliance: How does CAB support the development of more equitable and inclusive economies?
CAB: At CAB, we provide enabling infrastructure and work only at a B2B or B2G level – as such, we are one step removed from the consumer or project level female economic inclusion initiatives that many Alliance members are driving. It is our third-sector clients and partner banks around the world that are at the cutting edge of implementation. That said, the connections we provide are integral for those directly working to enable women’s economic inclusion and empowerment. It is our infrastructure that allows these remarkable activities to take place in some of the most complex and challenging markets.
CAB’s payment and FX rails reach into some of the world’s most distressed economies suffering from natural disasters and conflict – all contexts which put pressure on the finances of female-led households. We work with partners in the Cash-Voucher-Assistance and last-mile payments fields to secure livelihoods by bridging that gap between development funds originating in the Global North and the end recipient in the Global South.
Alliance: How are digital solutions enabling CAB to be more inclusive in its work?
CAB: Whilst much of what we do is based upon the nuts and bolts of traditional correspondent banking, digital solutions have been helping us work more effectively for some time and will, over coming years, allow CAB to receive and disburse funds in more, reaching deeper into the markets we work in. This is in many ways the holy grail for payments and FX actors – allowing clients to move money into a wide variety of contexts, be that a bank account, a field office, an offline biometric-based solution in a rural environment or a mobile wallet. Our clients are always at the center of our digital innovation; and our job is providing the infrastructure that enables them to serve their clients as seamlessly as possible.
Alliance: Where are you in your own inclusivity and gender data journey? Have you been able to examine ways to change your own internal approaches to ensuring that Crown Agents Bank is a good place for women to work?
CAB: Just as we embraced the opportunity the B-Corp process gave us to look at ourselves in the mirror, our growth over recent years required us to issue our first gender pay gap report. We currently track a full suite of employee diversity data, which includes gender. This is also broken down by department and by seniority. As with many organizations in the sector, we are working from a legacy of a male-dominated workforce and male-dominated leadership structure. Whilst our workforce is 40 percent female, females are not yet equally represented in senior leadership roles in the business. With Ann Cairns – a longtime leading voice for the Alliance – as our Chair, this is something we are actively working to improve.
As we grow, we want to see more female leaders come from within our existing ranks and more female leaders join CAB. This requires us to continually examine our own culture and make improvements. As a nearly 200-year-old business, we have had to regularly adapt and change, but being such a long-standing organization we must be ever-cognizant of the risk of resting on our laurels. We hope to learn from peer Alliance members about how they have driven measurable change in this area.
Alliance: As climate action is at the top of banks’ agendas, how will CAB adapt and mitigate climate change?
CAB: I certainly see CAB’s key role in climate mitigation is doing more of the work we have been doing to connect vulnerable economies to global financial infrastructure. Lower-income economies are often at most risk from climate-related natural disasters. We need to ensure climate finance and climate-related development finance can reach affected those communities.
Internally, as a freshly minted-B-Corp, there are obligations on us to keep improving our approaches to ESG. In 2024 we implemented our first ESG measures for supplier onboarding and are currently developing company-wide policies that promote many ESG measures, which include inclusion and gender diversity. It is not a one-shot effort, but rather a continued process of constant examination and improvement in the face of a rapidly changing global environment.
Alliance: Why did you decide to join the Alliance and what are you looking forward to learning from and/or sharing with the network?
CAB: For much of our history, Crown Agents Bank was a relatively small organization quietly doing some amazing things. In recent years we have sought to get out in the world more and to engage with other businesses and organizations that are also doing transformative work in the financial services sector. Fundamentally, we want to learn from other Alliance members, understand their work and explore how CAB can be a positive supporting voice in the community. We want to make sure our sector continues to provide financial connections to markets and communities liable to de-risking; and learn from colleagues on how to better empower our own female staff and leadership, essentially to start being the change we want to see.
