About ProMEX

ProMEX is a Hong Kong based fintech that offers a digital marketplace where users can buy, sell and manage voluntary carbon credits. ProMEX's trading platform gives users a transparent central order book that allows them to trade directly without intermediaries, creating a convenient carbon marketplace where buy and sell orders are matched and settled instantly.

Customers can quickly, safely, and securely discover prices and execute trades using the current cash value of their assets.

A simple way to trade carbon credits

The problem

Finding the right banking partner and technology platform in the UK

Following the success of their trading platform in Hong Kong, ProMEX wants to expand their customer base across Europe, starting with the United Kingdom. Their ideal banking partner and technology platform would offer bank accounts, enable payments and support to clear and settle transactions on its platform instantly.

As ProMEX began looking for potential banking partners, they realised they had several hard requirements:

• Easy API integration
• Scalable, segregated bank accounts for UK customers
• The ability to test and iterate without financial commitment
• The technology to verify and onboard customers quickly
• The ability for ProMEX customers to settle buy and sell orders instantly
• Functionality to carry out pre-trade checks on buyer accounts

“As a fintech in the early stages of UK expansion, we sought a platform that would provide an open and collaborative iteration process. First, we struggled to find a banking partner that offered unrestricted access to its test environment without payment or signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Then we discovered Griffin's sandbox.”

The solution

Why Griffin's sandbox?

In contrast to other vendors in the market, Griffin's sandbox is not behind a paywall or NDA, which meant the ProMEX team had instant access. Even though the sandbox was still in beta, ProMEX's developers found that the platform provided the right level of transparency and modern architecture.

As the team began building the prototype for their UK app, they engaged the Griffin support team to help them customise the user experience and solve some challenges in the beta version.

“We knew that the sandbox was still in development, but we were incredibly pleased that the Griffin team were eager to hear our feedback and provide stellar support, fixing all issues raised and ensuring we understood how the backend worked,” said Aman Luthra, a ProMEX developer.

Building an MVP with the sandbox

“We've built a complete prototype of our UK offering using just Griffin's sandbox. The modern architecture, simple API and superior documentation has been a breath of fresh air, allowing us to build and iterate fast.”

Simplified bank accounts for a complex use case

When a trade happens on the ProMEX platform, a match between a buy and sell order is created. Before that, the app confirms that the buyer has money and the seller has the correct carbon asset, then ProMEX executes the payment from the buyer to the seller in real time.

With Griffin's platform, ProMEX is able to offer a bank account to each individual customer with a few API calls. Individual segregated accounts for buyers and sellers make instant reconciliation easier. Griffin's out-of-the-box ledger technology also lets ProMEX see when a buyer credits their Griffin account and confirms that the buyer has the funds to complete transactions on its platform

Implementing quick and secure customer onboarding

ProMEX had to create a KYC onboarding process to verify user identities for its Hong Kong app from scratch, which required extensive development and compliance resources. Verify, Griffin's automated customer onboarding product, solves this problem for ProMEX in the UK.

The regulatory and KYC checks on prospective clients and traders are carried out quickly using Verify. ProMEX has been able to customise KYC workflows and test the decisioning accuracy directly through the API.

Business future proofing with payments

Once it receives a UK banking licence, Griffin will help ProMEX expand by supplying the payment rails that will enable customer transactions across Europe. Payment rails are the architecture that ensures money can be transferred between a payer and a payee. Some common examples are Swift, CHAPS, and Faster Payments.

Currency conversions are essential to ProMEX's business and the ability to convert and receive value directly on the platform is a game changer that can be integrated once Griffin becomes a bank.

“Griffin has everything we need- an immutable ledger, segregated accounts and onboarding automation that will help us build the product and enter the market in a fast and compliant way.” Guido Glowania, CSO of ProMEX said.

What's next?

“We believe by building and testing our MVP on Griffin's sandbox, we will significantly reduce the time and resources needed to launch the product and drive adoption in the UK market.” explains Guido.

With the MVP in place, ProMEX can now:

• Build interest in the UK amongst carbon suppliers, offsetters and traders
• Engage investors with a tangible prototype
• Prepare their wider expansion plan, including building their UK operations and go-to-market strategies

“We are excited about the potential opportunity to work with Griffin. There is so much more we can do once Griffin is a fully authorised bank. From offering debit cards to our customers to building other investment products in-app, we strongly believe Griffin is the right UK banking partner for ProMEX.”