October 2024: Top five fintech partnership stories of the month
The global fintech industry delivered a range of compelling partnerships over the month of October. Here, we’ve selected five of the top partnership stories of the month, featuring BBVA, Mastercard, Barclays and more.
Barclays signs agreement to become exclusive issuer of GM credit card programme
Barclays signs credit card partnership agreement with GM
Barclays US Consumer Bank has signed a long-term credit card partnership agreement with General Motors (GM), through which it will become “the exclusive issuer of the GM Rewards Mastercard and the GM Business Mastercard in the United States starting next summer”.
The bank will replace Goldman Sachs as the issuer of the US automotive giant’s credit card programme. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
GM and Barclays say the bank will be “acquiring the card programme’s receivables from the current issuer next year”, with the deal serving to boost the bank’s credit card portfolio in the US as it looks to “build upon its growth strategy announced last February”.
Bank of Hangzhou partners Malaysia’s Maybank to support cross-border businesses in China
Bank of Hangzhou, a $275 billion-asset commercial bank in China, has come together with Kuala Lumpur-headquartered Maybank to support Chinese enterprises expanding into Southeast Asia.
The partnership will focus on “enhancing cross-border business and advancing digital innovation”, according to a statement issued by Maybank, which cites data governance, AI, analytics, fintech product innovation, talent development and knowledge sharing as key areas of interest.
This includes facilitating services such as cross-border financing, Southeast Asian currency clearing, and wider interbank cooperation within China.
“Together, we will be involved in co-development of AI and digital offerings to facilitate the ‘going global and bringing in’ of businesses from both countries,” comments Siew Chan Cheong, group chief strategy and transformation officer of Maybank.
BBVA headed for 2025 token pilot with new Visa asset platform
BBVA to pilot tokenised assets with Visa in 2025
Spanish banking giant BBVA is using Visa’s new platform to create tokens on the public Ethereum blockchain, with live pilots scheduled for 2025.
The bank will extend the Visa tokenised asset platform (VTAP), which launched this month to enable banks to bring fiat currencies onchain, to “select customers” in Europe next year, with the initial live pilot to be based on the public Ethereum blockchain.
BBVA previously collaborated with Visa to test core functionalities through the VTAP sandbox, including the issuance, transfer and redemption of a bank token on a testnet blockchain, as well as how the token interacts with smart contracts.
Citi and Mastercard collaborate to enable cross-border payments via debit cards
Citi has joined forces with its existing partner Mastercard to enable clients to complete near-instant, cross-border payments using only their Mastercard debit card details.
The collaboration will apply the bank’s WorldLink Payment Services with the money transfer capabilities of Mastercard Move to allow Citi clients to make cross-border payments from 65 origination countries to 14 receiving markets.
The technology can support the likes of insurance payouts, airline refunds, compensation payments, on-demand payments for the gig economy, and e-commerce payments, according to a joint statement.
Nymbus and PeoplesBank partner to launch two employer-focused financial wellness solutions
Nymbus and PeoplesBank extend partnership
Nymbus, a US-based cloud-core banking solutions provider, has teamed up with Massachusetts-headquartered community bank PeoplesBank to launch two new products with the aim to “improve workplace finance by offering solutions that strengthen benefits packages and foster long-term employee loyalty”.
To address “the pressing need for improved financial wellness tools,” Nymbus says the duo’s two new products – Employer-led Bank and Union Workers Financial Services (UWFS) – will enable “mid-large organisations and unions” to create their own digital banks, providing credit-building tools, tailored debit cards, emergency loans, high-interest savings accounts, and discounted financial services.
A “key feature” of the solutions, as stated by Nymbus, is a revenue-sharing model that enables companies to “reinvest a portion of the banking revenue directly back into their workforce”.
