Finland-based Enfuce has signed a contract with the State Treasury of Finland and Kela to deliver a prepaid disbursement card service as a payment alternative to account payments. The announcement details that following an official tender process for the procurement of a prepaid payment card service, the State Treasury of Finland and Kela (Social Insurance Institution of Finland) have awarded a five-year contract to Enfuce.

The prepaid disbursement card service that the fintech is set to deliver will provide the institutions with a secure, reliable, and easy-to-use prepaid payment solution to be leveraged in situations where account payments are not an option. Details on the prepaid disbursement card service As per the press release information, Enfuce’s prepaid cards can be supplied with a range of features to address the needs of each customer group and are both reliable and have high uptime, with Enfuce believing this helps provide a good user experience for card users. Several public administrative organisations and Kela disburse benefits and compensations to Finnish and Finland-based people, and as account transfers are not always an option, a prepaid card is leveraged in those instances for disbursing benefits and compensations.

Lasse Skog, Director of Development at the State Treasury of Finland stated that certain public administrative organisations are required by Finnish law, decrees, and other norms to disburse to beneficiaries: benefits, compensations, subsidies, and other payments. A part of these payments has a requirement for an alternative payment method to complement traditional account transfers, with them adding that these organisations have been leveraging an existing prepaid card solution. They stated that as public procurement is normally characterised by fixed-term contracts and the previous framework contract was reaching its lifecycle’s end, a new public procurement round was called.

Under the contract, Enfuce is set to provide prepaid disbursement cards, related payment processing, as well as customer service on behalf of certain governmental organisations and Kela. Digitisation of the payment card service and what this entails Leveraging the fintech’s digital card payment service, the Finnish government and Kela are enabled to replace cash payments of certain benefits and compensations whenever account payments are not an option, with the solution also providing easy service controls in diverse use cases via various card-specific usage limiters. Commenting on the announcement, Denise Johansson, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Enfuce stated that they are set to leverage their expertise in building aiming to help guarantee secure payments for those needing them, in addition to efficient and transparent payment processes for the Finnish government and Kela.

Lasse Skog added that the key element of the partnership for governmental organisations and Kela is to be enabled with a payment method that meets their requirements, is cost-efficient, and is easy to use. Furthermore, Enfuce is expected to deliver the service, further develop the features as per their needs, and provide support in their development of efficient processes. Collaboration context Following Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Finnish economic outlook has been overshadowed, with a Ministry of Finance forecast predicting that Finland’s GDP will decline to 0.

5% in 2023, with inflation also expected to slow in 2023. The economic downturn is believed to put pressure on the country’s procurement systems, which spend approximately EUR 35 billion annually, amounting to 19. 4% of the country’s GDP.

The contract between the State Treasury of Finland, Kela, and Enfuce follows the recognition of a need to generate cost savings and improve public fund distribution with a robust and up-to-to date payments infrastructure in the face of this economic downturn. .