GoCardless, the bank payments company, has today announced a four-year deal to become the official payments partner for Swim England, with plans to extend offers and benefits to affiliated groups and individuals including swimming clubs, swim schools, and trainers.

The agreement, effective 1 August, will also see GoCardless become the headline sponsor for all Swim England national events, covering activities across swimming, diving, artistic swimming and water polo.

Although this is the first sports sponsorship for the fintech, GoCardless has deep roots in the sport and health & wellness space. The initial idea for the company, founded in 2011, stemmed from a desire to make it easier for grassroots football clubs to collect membership fees.

Despite broadening its use cases early on and landing on its current vision to become the world’s bank payment network, its expertise in recurring payments made it a natural choice for grassroots, membership and health & wellness organisations. GoCardless now works with more than 7,000 customers and 75 partners in the space, providing organisations a convenient, safe, and cost-effective way to collect recurring fees and dues. More recently, GoCardless added the ability to take instant, one-off payments powered by open banking, ideal for top-ups and extras that fall outside of regular payments.

On the other side, members that pay with GoCardless can improve the financial health of their club. Because direct debit is a cheaper payment option compared to methods such as cards, the organisation gets to keep more of its dues -- which means more money gets reinvested into the club.

Hiroki Takeuchi, co-founder and CEO of GoCardless, said: “We’re excited to be the official payments partner and headline sponsor for Swim England national events, a move that will not only help us raise brand awareness in sectors that are perfectly suited for bank payments, but also brings us back to our roots. For over a decade we’ve helped organisations win and retain more members, save time and money, stress less and get paid on time. We look forward to taking the pain out of getting paid for even more clubs and operators so they can focus on what they do best.”

Jane Nickerson, Swim England chief executive, said: “We’re thrilled to have agreed this partnership with GoCardless. Collecting membership fees can be an incredibly stressful time but GoCardless can help reduce administration time, making it much simpler process for both club officials and their members. By becoming a headline partner for our national events, GoCardless are also making a significant commitment to our sports and our work to champion a healthy and successful nation through aquatic activity.”