Why is Banking Circle the correspondent bank, and not NoFrixion directly?

NoFrixion is an authorised Electronic Money Institution (EMI), not a licensed bank. As an EMI, NoFrixion does not hold direct membership of SWIFT or direct access to payment rails across all currencies.

Banking Circle SA is NoFrixion's banking partner and the licensed bank that holds and processes funds on NoFrixion's behalf. This means that when a SWIFT payment is sent to a NoFrixion account, it must first route through Banking Circle, who then credit the relevant NoFrixion account.

This is why Banking Circle (BCIRLULLXXX) appears as the correspondent bank on all incoming SWIFT payment instructions, regardless of currency.

Why is the correspondent bank based in Luxembourg for currencies like AUD or JPY?

Banking Circle SA is a licensed bank headquartered in Luxembourg. They maintain their own network of correspondent relationships to handle local clearing in different countries, which is managed entirely on their side.

As the sending bank, you only need to direct the payment to Banking Circle (BCIRLULLXXX) and they handle onward routing from there. There is no requirement to use a country-specific BIC for the currency being sent.