OpenPayd integrates virtual IBANS for seamless fiat-to-crypto for Wirex

credit: Shutterstock
credit: Shutterstock

Embedded finance firm OpenPayd has partnered with crypto money app Wirex to provide seamless pound and euro transactions from fiat-to-crypto accounts. 

Wirex customers across the UK and European Economic Area (EEA) will be issued with a OpenPayd virtual IBAN that provides access to the Faster Payments network in the UK, as well as the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) for deposits and withdrawals. 

The service will be fully embedded into Wirex’s infrastructure via OpenPayd’s single, developer-friendly API. Wirex customers will receive a unique, named IBAN, enabling them to seamlessly transfer euro and pound between their Wirex and bank accounts. 

Payments across OpenPayd’s SEPA Instant and Faster Payments rails take place in real-time, strengthening Wirex’s mission to provide easy, fast and secure payment methods to its customers.

Iana Dimitrova, CEO of OpenPayd, said: “High-growth digital assets businesses need reliable, scalable banking and payments partners to deliver a seamless user experience without incurring delays or prohibitive fees. 

“Wirex is a trusted, established and growing player in the digital assets market. Our reliable platform, with 99.99% uptime, will support Wirex in its mission to make cryptocurrency more secure, accessible and available to everyone.”

As a Banking-as-a-Service platform, OpenPayd has been exploring the capabilities of crypto payments. Barry O’Sullivan, Head of Payments Infrastructure at OpenPayd, spoke on the potential of stablecoins in particular and their cross-border capabilities. 

Writing for Payment Expert, O’Sullivan acknowledged the surge in stablecoin adoption and capacity. He highlighted the ability stablecoins can have on the transaction speed due to being processed and settled in a few seconds. 

The partnership with OpenPayd is the latest effort from Wirex to provide a seamless source of fiat-to-crypto transactions after inking a strategic global plan with Visa last year.

The collaboration includes the firm becoming a Visa partner in both the UK and APAC, which will allow Wirex to directly issue crypto-enabled debit and prepaid cards to more than 40 countries. 

Pavel Matveev, CEO and Co-Founder of Wirex, commented on the OpenPayd partnership: “At Wirex, we strive to bridge the gap between the traditional and digital economies, so it’s vital that our customers can easily make and receive payments via SEPA Instant and Faster Payments. 

“OpenPayd’s tech stack is not only state of the art and easy to integrate, it’s also proven at scale – processing millions of transactions monthly. Named IBANs offer our customers an improved user experience and an even more personalised service. They also enable our teams to completely automate back office account reconciliation. 

“OpenPayd is the perfect partner to facilitate the instant, accessible and secure payments our customers need.”