Nium Partners with Visa to Offer Card Issuance in Australia

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3 years ago

SINGAPORE, 9 June, 2020 – Nium, a global financial technology platform, has become a Visa issuer in Australia as part of its membership in Visa’s Fintech Fast Track programme. With this licence, Nium is able to provide end-to-end issuing, processing and onboarding services, and shorten the lead time for Visa card issuance to just four to six weeks.

Nium plans to use the issuance license to extend its portfolio to clients in Australia and beyond, providing end-to-end B2B and B2C issuing services globally. Through this partnership, Nium will be able to:

Conduct real-time funds transfers to both physical and virtual Visa Credit and Debit cards, for instance, deposition of payroll into Visa cards
Enable secure digital payments through tokenization for in-stores, online payments and at ATM points
Unlock simple payment experiences for businesses and consumers around the world through multi-currency cards with multi-pocket/wallet spend management features

Currently, business owners rely on outdated card management systems as part of their corporate bank accounts. There is limited or no digital access, and significant time is spent on reconciling expenses and claims. Integrating and managing a card issuing programme can generate significant competitive advantage for businesses, such as an increase in productivity, but it also can pose a significant challenge as it requires deep vertical expertise and considerable commitment from the business.

Nium would streamline and simplify access for companies with end-to-end card issuing solutions, allowing them to operate intelligent digital wallets that can easily be used across millions of points of sale within Visa’s global acceptance network.

“One of Nium’s primary goals is to improve business efficiency through the introduction and facilitation of financial technology, and this partnership with Visa allows us to do that at scale. The flexibility of our APIs tools and turnkey infrastructure, coupled with Visa products and services, allow us to support different use cases for Spend Management seen across various business models and platforms, from companies looking to reconcile T&E for employees, businesses looking to pay suppliers and vendors overseas, or innovative technology companies looking to send payments to their community, we are able to customise the solution for each and every single one of them,” said Gitesh Athavale, Head of Product (Cards), Nium.

For instance, Nium has recently worked with Australian SME banking solutions provider, Budgetly, to offer corporate cards to their SME clientale. The card will be linked to Budgetly’s analytics tools to help small businesses with cash flow monitoring and expense tracking.

“Businesses in Australia are starting to recognise the need for a digital solution that will revamp existing corporate card management system. The antiquated system that involves physical paperwork to edit card management settings, lack of rewards interface and delayed expense tracking will no longer survive in today’s age where digitisation is king, and we are glad to be partnering with Nium to provide a robust digital solution for the next generation of business owners whom are demanding a better banking experience,” said Simon Lenoir, Founder and CEO of Budgetly.

Nium is also working with Australian music platform Emanate, to disburse royalties to musicians and artistes via the corporate StreamCard. Fees are topped up automatically once the artistes’ music has been played, enabling them to access and use the funds across all Visa’s points of sales immediately.

“As a music community dedicated to increasing speed and fairness for our artists through technology, Emanate is excited to be able to use a progressive and financial services product like Nium. Our goal of giving musicians near real-time access to streaming royalties is becoming much easier thanks to the Nium-powered Emanate StreamCard. This will change the lives of our musicians from day one. Imagine releasing a song in the morning, and that night your plays cover a round of beers with your friends to celebrate. It’s never been done before,” said Sean Gardner, CEO Blockchain Music Pty Ltd (Emanate).

This announcement comes shortly after Nium introduced the addition of Visa and BRI Ventures as new investors to the six-year-old startup in May 2020.

About Nium

Nium is a global financial technology platform redefining the way consumers and businesses send, spend and receive funds across borders. The company is continuously innovating to provide the most relevant and agile solutions to meet the needs of consumers and businesses, having evolved from solely focusing on consumer remittance via InstaReM, to also providing fintech solutions for businesses from 2019. Nium is regulated in Australia, Canada, European Union, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States of America, and processes billions of dollars a year for banks and payments institutions, the next generation of e-commerce players, OTAs and retail users across the world. Nium’s investors include Visa, BRI Ventures, Vertex Ventures, Vertex Growth, Fullerton Financial Holdings, GSR Ventures, Rocket Internet, Global Founders Capital, SBI Japan, FMO (Netherlands Development Finance Company), MDI Ventures, Beacon Venture Capital and Atinum Investment.

Learn more about Nium’s cards issuance solution.

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