European Economic Area (EEA)
Ixaris is now Nium
Ixaris has been acquired by Nium, the leading platform for global money movement. Nium offers customers the ability to Pay out, Pay In, and Issue Cards in 190+ markets around the globe.
Introduction to Europe
To service its European customers after Brexit occurred, Nium (formerly Ixaris) had to apply for an additional license within the EU. Nium successfully obtained a license in Malta bearing the name Ixaris Financial Services Malta Limited (IFSM), which is regulated by the Malta Financial Service Authority (MFSA).
Subsequently, for any business registered within the European Economic Area (EEA), we must move your account to operate on the Ixaris Financial Services Malta license.
Is my money safe with Ixaris?
We hold clients’ money in safeguarded bank accounts. Additionally, Ixaris is authorised by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) under the Financial Institution Act, chapter 376 of the laws of Malta, for the provision of e-money (registration number C98342). This means that any money you add to Ixaris is set aside in its entirety and safely stored for your use.
Introduction to funding
Nium works on a prepaid model. This means that before you can start creating virtual cards and making payments with Nium, you need to add money to your Nium account. The process of adding money to your account is also called funding your account.
You can fund your account by sending a bank transfer to one of our banking providers’ bank accounts. These are safeguarded accounts where we securely hold our clients’ funds.
Once your money is received by our banking providers, it is automatically routed to one of your Nium funding accounts.
What are funding accounts?
After you send a bank transfer to fund your account, that money is added to a funding account in Nium. You can then use this money to top-up your virtual cards.
We will set up funding accounts for you when we onboard you to Nium. You will have a funding account for every available currency that you plan to make card purchases with. (By default, you will get one funding account per currency, however, you can also request secondary funding accounts if you need to.)
If you have a funding account in a particular currency, that means you can create and top up virtual cards in that currency. For example, if you have a GBP funding account, you will use the money in this account to top up all the GBP virtual cards you create.
How do virtual cards work?
Once money is available in your funding accounts, you can create and use virtual cards. Nium supports two types of virtual cards:
- Single-spend cards are used for a single transaction. These cards are automatically frozen upon authorisation and deleted upon settlement (purchase). If the authorisation is reversed, the card's status is changed back to active.
- Multi-spend cards can be used for multiple transactions. These cards will remain active until they reach the set clearance date or are manually deleted.
Bank account approval
To recap, you will add money to your Nium account by sending a bank transfer from your bank account (also called a funding source) to one of our banking providers’ bank accounts. Your money will then be transferred from our banking providers’ bank account to one of your funding accounts in Nium.
As part of our regulatory requirements, we need to verify all the bank accounts (funding sources) that you use to transfer money to our platform before we can accept them as an approved funding source. To do this, during your onboarding process we will ask you to provide some information related to your bank accounts in a KYB questionnaire.
If you change banks or need to add an alternative bank account, you will need to request us to approve this new funding source.
To have your bank account approved as a funding source, follow these steps:
- Obtain a bank statement from your bank
a. The statement must meet the following criteria:
i. It must be recent (up to 3 months old)
ii. It must have your account holder name
iii. It must have your IBAN/Account number
iv. It must have the bank logo
- Send the bank statement to compliance_uk@nium.com
What banking providers do we use?
We use two banking providers to facilitate transfers from your bank account to a specific funding account: Banking Circle and Barclays.
The way you route your transfers to your Nium funding account will determine which banking provider will process the transfer, and how long that transfer will take.
Banking definitions
SEPA
SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) is a payment-integration initiative of the European Union to simplify bank transfers denominated in euros. As of 2018, SEPA consists of the 28 member states of the European Union and the four-member states of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland) in addition to Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City.
SEPA Instant
This EPC payment scheme enables euro credit transfers with the funds made available on the account in less than ten seconds at any time and in an area that will progressively span over 36 European countries.
SWIFT
SWIFT (The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is a network that allows banks to communicate financial information securely. Most banks and building societies offer SWIFT payments for international fund transfers. SWIFT payments involve a series of banks that work together to ensure your funds are in the right place. You can think of it like making a journey yourself - if there isn't a direct flight to your destination, you might take a series of connecting flights to get there. In the same way, your SWIFT payment can end up being moved between one and three correspondent (or intermediary) banks before reaching your recipient. SWIFT payments are the most common choice for high-street banks making international payments, but they're not necessarily the cheapest or fastest option.