Norwegian crypto platform NBX has signed a deal with Tieto Banktech for digital and physical payment cards. The cards are meant to let customers spend stablecoins in daily life without first selling them, converting to kroner and moving the funds.
Photo: Stig Aleksander Kjos-Mathisen is chief executive of NBX.
Norwegian Block Exchange (NBX) is a listed trading platform. Its customers can buy bitcoin and trade digital assets such as ether and tokenised gold directly in Norwegian kroner. The company is registered with Norway's financial supervisory authority, Finanstilsynet, and issues its own stablecoins – cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of an ordinary currency. NBX has now signed an agreement with Tieto Banktech, the banking technology arm of IT company Tieto, to issue payment cards to its customers.
"What sets us apart is that we issue our own MiCA-compliant stablecoins. So this isn't a card sitting on top of a stablecoin – it's designed around it."
Stig Aleksander Kjos-Mathisen, chief executive of NBX, in a press release. MiCA is the EU's rulebook for crypto-assets.
The card programme is intended to make it easier for customers to use the value of their stablecoins. Today, to pay by card they would normally have to sell the digital assets, convert them into ordinary currency and transfer the funds first. The card is meant to shorten that chain of manual steps.
The starting point is a prepaid Visa card. Later, Tieto Banktech will also support Visa Flex, which according to the press release opens the way for more flexible and personalised payment options over time. The solution combines Visa's APIs with Tieto's own technology, which draws on capabilities from both Visa and Mastercard.
Tieto Banktech supplies the issuing and payments infrastructure. That covers card administration, transaction authorisation, PIN services and production of physical cards. The company also handles financial crime prevention, with transaction monitoring, risk scoring and fraud monitoring.
"NBX is a new type of fintech customer for our card business, and a new type of card issuer in the Norwegian market," says Aslak Lid, who heads the card business at Tieto Banktech.
The card programme also involves a bank. IDT Finance is a regulated bank and a principal member of both Visa and Mastercard. It acts as BIN sponsor – the bank under which the card number range is registered.
Through this model, the bank provides access to the global card networks. That allows fintech companies to launch card programmes without their own banking licence or direct membership of the card schemes.
Kjos-Mathisen describes the card as a first step. The ambition is a single multicurrency card that lets customers use the digital assets they already hold as everyday spending money.
"We are inviting our customers on a journey. It begins with spending stablecoins in the currency that suits them, and grows from there with new layers, including credit," he says.
NBX is also exploring expansion beyond Norway, including potential markets such as Germany and Poland.
Sources: Tieto
You have read what you can read for free. With an account you get unlimited access to all news and articles on kaupr.io — and become part of the network of investors, professionals and builders following onchain finance.