Easy EP is among Spain’s leading banking and payments infrastructure providers. It enables a broad array of financial services for its corporate and private customers including real-time SEPA money transfers, global cross-border payments and IBAN banking account management.

Under the new partnership, Carta Worldwide will provide the issuer processing services that connect Easy EP to Visa’s payment network. The partnership will enable Easy EP to offer white-labelled prepaid card products to customers across Europe. The product will give clients more choice in integrating virtual and physical card products into their embedded finance ecosystems.

According to Atomico’s State of European Tech report, the continent enjoyed a record-breaking year in 2021 ($100B capital invested, 98 new unicorns and over $1 trillion in value created). Yet stark geographical differences remain, with Southern Europe lagging far behind Northern Europe. According to the report, “The five largest hubs by total capital invested (London, Berlin, Stockholm, Munich and Paris) are home to companies that between them captured 54% of total investment into the region in 2021, up from 49% in 2017.” Cities such as Barcelona, Madrid and Milan rank 7th, 10th and 19th respectively. The role of new, non-traditional financial providers is critical in closing this gap.

Easy EP, one of the first non-banking institutions to offer banking services in Spain, is no stranger to challenging the status quo and driving positive change. Easy EP’s new card products follow its recent authorisation as a principal member of Visa - among the first few Spanish non-banking institutions to have been granted direct membership. Now, leveraging Carta Worldwide’s industry-leading API and expertise, Easy EP is pulling away from the competition, providing customers with better access to global financial services.

“At Easy, we don’t shy away from solving the biggest financial technology challenges, punching far above our weight to pioneer ground-breaking financial services. We’re proud to be leading the embedded banking revolution in Spain by becoming one of the first Spanish non-bank financial institutions licensed to provide banking services to customers,” said Jazmin Achi, CEO/Co-founder, Easy EP. “We remain hyper-focused on building simplified solutions to help European businesses achieve their full potential. Our partnership with Carta Worldwide is the next major step in our mission to offer world-class card services for our customers.”

“European fintech has a hard-earned and well-deserved reputation for driving innovation across the region’s economies, but this success is not evenly distributed,” comments Richard Wray, Chief Operations Officer, Carta Worldwide. “For the rising tide to lift all boats, we need to unlock access for Europe’s sleeping southern giants. That’s why we’re particularly excited to be helping Easy EP and its customers access the full breadth of card services to help drive innovation and growth in a key Southern European country.”