Optimus Cards partners with Temenos to scale its Cards as a Service business

By Joy Dumasia

Temenos announces that Optimus Cards, the white label card and Banking-as-a-Service provider, has subscribed to Temenos open platform for composable banking to support the expansion of its cards-as-a-service business. Temenos will help the UK headquartered Electronic Money Institution launch new products faster and scale efficiently as it expands into new markets. 

Regulated by the FCA and a Principal Member of Mastercard, Optimus acts as a primary card issuer and program manager. The firm serves customers in the FinTech and mutual sectors, offering a sophisticated platform that supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, Open Banking, contactless and virtual cards, IBANs, UK sort-code and accounts, plus ‘cardless’ cash withdrawal. 

As part of Uphold, the global multi-asset digital trading platform with over 10 million users, Optimus has expansive growth plans. It is launching new white-label credit card and multi-asset crypto-enabled debit card services and partnering with local regulated issuers in Europe and the U.S. to expand its footprint and tap new growth opportunities. 

The Temenos banking platform will process all transactions and manage customer accounts, and Optimus will also compose a lending solution to support its new credit card service. The platform connects in real-time via APIs to Optimus clients’ back-office systems to facilitate instant authorization from the customer’s account or crypto wallet. 

Lindsay Robertson, CEO Optimus Cards, commented: “Our strategy is based on innovation, speed and flexibility, providing solutions to mutual institutions like credit unions and building societies, and to innovative FinTechs bringing Web 3 services to the market. The economics of our offering enables customers of all sizes to offer card services profitably, and that requires a high-performance technology stack. Optimus chose Temenos for the platform’s proven reliability and resilience and the flexibility to compose solutions for a broader range of Banking-as-a-Service offerings in the future. With a client base that includes more than 3,000 banking clients and 500 credit unions in the U.S., Temenos also has a huge customer ecosystem and experience that will be invaluable as we push into new markets.” 

Max Chuard, CEO, Temenos, said: “Banking-as-a-Service is a massive growth opportunity for innovative companies like Optimus Cards, estimated to be worth $3.6 trillion globally by 2030. To be successful with these new business models, you need the right technology and platform for agility, scale and innovation. Choosing Temenos open platform for composable banking will allow Optimus to serve its customers at a lower cost while providing the flexibility and agility to expand its portfolio of embedded financial cards and payment solutions in the future.” 

IBS Intelligence recently reported that ADCB Egypt, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Group – the third largest bank in the UAE- has extended its collaboration with Temenos to offer the next-generation digital payments on the Temenos open platform composable banking.