The European challenger bank YAPEAL has launched a new digital wallet with the help of Marqeta’s modern card issuing platform.
The digital wallet will offer a range of personal finance features, including the ability to issue a mobile ready debit card that can connect to mobile payment apps, starting with Google Pay, and Apple Pay and Samsung Pay coming soon. YAPEAL will help its customers, Yapsters, to intelligently manage money through budgeting tools and provide access to multiple currencies.
Daniel Capraro, co-founder and chief product officer of YAPEAL, believes the partnership will enable the neobank’s customers to cut significant chunks of time off from the process of opening a bank account.
“Taking a week to be able to open a bank account and receive a debit card is just too long in today’s digital world,” said Capraro. “With the help of Marqeta, our customers can now set up an account and begin using their debit cards to shop online in just minutes.”
He added, “With Marqeta, we created the entire offering process in two and a half months, one that would have taken eighteen months with other providers. We’re thrilled to be bringing this speed to the Swiss market and, looking to the future, hope to do the same internationally.”
The news comes after months after YAPEAL secured a FinTech banking licence from FINMA, Switzerland’s independent financial markets regulator in March 2020. The Zurich-based digital bank thus became the first company in Switzerland to receive a FinTech banking license after the licence was introduced in 2019.
In related news, Marqeta is seemingly looking to go public, with sources having told Reuters that the payment card issuing startup is in talks with investment banks for an initial public offering (IPO) either later this year or in 2021.
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