Mastercard and Canadian FinTech Nuvei have teamed to help consumers turn digital assets into fiat currency.
The collaboration, announced Thursday (July 11), is open to consumers in Europe, and lets them convert their assets via debit, credit and prepaid cards.
“This new functionality provides a bridge between digital and traditional finance that can be spent via Mastercard’s global network,” the companies said in a news release. “This off-ramping solution is integrated directly into Nuvei’s modular payment platform, delivering a simple, secure user experience.”
According to the release, the off-ramping lets consumers convert a range of supported digital assets into fiat currency. From there, they can then transfer the funds to their eligible Mastercard in near real-time via Mastercard Move’s money movement capabilities, with no need to go through third-party exchanges or money service businesses.
“Our mission is to enable businesses and their customers to connect through payments, wherever consumers are and however they want to pay,” said Nuvei CEO Philip Fayer. “Offering crypto off-ramps through our single integration aligns perfectly with this mission to facilitate frictionless transactions across the digital economy.”
This partnership follows another collaboration announced last month between Nuvei and Visa to offer Visa Direct to Colombia’s fast-growing eCommerce market.
Meanwhile, PYMNTS spoke recently with Ben Weiner, Nuvei’s senior vice president/global head of B2B payments, about the three main factors influencing the contemporary B2B landscape: prevailing high interest rates, the growth and challenges facing small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and the rising interest in alternative capital in the FinTech sector.
He said that high interest rates have narrowed the spread between prime rates and the annual percentage rates (APRs) for alternative capital, making these solutions more enticing.
At the same time, SMBs, while growing, face obstacles in accessing unsecured credit and are fueled by “an often unrealistic” need for efficiency. Put together, these realities have given traction to the concept of alternative capital.
“This started back with the whole buy now, pay later (BNPL) craze on the consumer side, and it’s starting very slowly to trickle into B2B payments,” said Weiner, adding that high interest rates and inflation are placing a lot of strain on businesses, while buyers are “really driving the balance sheets” of suppliers.
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