Cross River Partners with F1 Payments and RS2 for BaaS Payment Processing
On June 16, 2020, Cross River Bank announced a banking-as-a-service sponsor bank partnership with F1 Payments and RS2 to deliver payment processing services across North America. Under the arrangement, F1 Payments leverages RS2's global processing platform combined with Cross River's BaaS bank sponsorship to serve both physical and virtual merchants. The partnership enables F1 Payments to expand into traditional merchant acquiring, using Cross River's regulated banking infrastructure.
Cross River has established itself as a prominent partner bank specializing in lending and payments for fintech companies. This deal exemplifies the growing BaaS model where sponsor banks provide the regulatory and banking rails for non-bank companies to offer financial services. No financial terms were publicly disclosed.
The partnership was noted in broader mid-2020 analyses of the partner bank boom alongside institutions like Bancorp and Celtic.
- Reinforces Cross River's position as a leading BaaS sponsor bank in the payments vertical
- Demonstrates how multi-party BaaS partnerships (bank + processor + distributor) are becoming standard in merchant acquiring