Independent payments broker secures solid growth

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 £804k, up 34% from £600k in the previous year. Accept Cards secured a turnover of £2.3m, 7% up from £2.1m in the previous year. Operating nationally, Accept Cards 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.

Accept Cards helped 2316 new businesses and its customer base process more than £2bn card transactions during the financial year. The firm also reduced processing costs for the businesses it works with by an average of 35.3%.

The Elland-headquartered business was founded by CEO Richard Bradley in 2005 and announced 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,
who has more than 25 years of industry experience having previously worked at Barclays, Lloyds and WorldPay.

Richard Bradley, CEO of Accept Cards, said: “It’s fantastic to report a further year of growth at Accept Cards. 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 help them to navigate this complex, regulated and ever-changing area and expect demand to continue. We look forward to supporting more businesses of all sizes and sectors to ensure that they can maximise their potential in the year ahead.”

Accept Cards is one of only a handful of independent payments firms in the UK and is trusted by banks, accountants, professional trade associations and business consultants to support customers with their payment requirements. The broker supports businesses of all sizes with a range of payment solutions including merchant services, card machines, online payments, e-commerce solutions, EPoS, open banking, charity donations and much more.