Sept 11 (Reuters) - Private equity firm EQT

is exploring a sale of its majority stake in Banking Circle,

hoping any deal would value the payments processor at more than

$2 billion, including debt, several people familiar with the

matter said.

EQT is working on the plan with investment bankers at Morgan

Stanley, who in recent weeks have been informally sounding out

potential buyers, including payments and financial technology

companies as well as other buyout firms, said the sources.

The sources cautioned that no sale was guaranteed and spoke

on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.

EQT and Morgan Stanley declined comment. Banking Circle did

not respond to a request for comment.

Banking Circle helps facilitate cross-border payments

through its technology platform and correspondent banking

network, and counts e-commerce giant Alibaba ( BABA ) and

fellow payments firms Stripe and Paysafe ( PSFE ) among its

customers.

The Luxembourg-headquartered company also holds a banking

licence in Europe, setting it apart from many other payments

companies, which have sought to eschew the heavy regulatory

oversight that comes with it. Last year, it clinched a licence

to be an uninsured Connecticut state-chartered commercial bank,

as part of efforts to expand in the United States.

Banking Circle generates annually around $400 million of

revenue and $80 million of earnings before interest, tax,

depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), according to four of the

sources.

The business was initially founded in 2013 as a payments

subsidiary of Denmark's Saxo Bank, and was relaunched as Saxo

Payments Banking Circle in 2016, before dropping the reference

to Saxo a year later.

EQT bought its majority stake in Banking Circle for an

undisclosed price in 2018. Founding staff of Banking Circle hold

the rest of the company.

While valuations of payments companies have cooled somewhat

since the boom at the turn of the decade, both industry players

and investment firms retain significant interest in such

companies, given digital transactions constitute an increasing

percentage of money moves.

Nuvei ( NVEI ), another of Banking Circle's clients, agreed

in April to be bought by investment firm Advent International in

a $6.3 billion transaction that will take it private.