Romania’s Central Bank approves Elrond’s acquisition of Twispay

Elrond could explore the issuance of crypto-enabled debit cards as well as stablecoins, DeFi and NFTs.

The Romanian Central Bank has approved Elrond’s acquisition of Twispay, a financial services provider also licensed to issue electronic money.

The approval means Elrond can now leverage the e-money license to bring blockchain-based technology to Europe’s digital finance evolution, the platform’s CEO Beniamin Mincu said in a statement.

“This landmark decision from the Romanian Central Bank opens the door for EU citizens, and soon for everyone everywhere, to significantly benefit from value flowing with near-instant settlement times, at 100x fewer costs, with full transparency, and higher reliability,” he added.

Twispay, which operates under authorisation of the National Bank of Romania, has strategically positioned itself as a key payment solution with services that integrate various fiat currencies and payment options. 

It’s also a big player in the e-commerce space, with passporting rules giving it a presence in the EEA bloc (European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway).

“Elrond seeks to enhance the utility of this proven and regulated value transfer framework and take it to its natural conclusion by complementing it with a blockchain technology that is fast, scalable and inexpensive,” Mincu explained further.

Elrond eyes crypto debit cards, DeFi an NFTs

The acquisition of Twispay, a principal member of both Visa and Mastercard in card issuance and merchant engagement, could also prove critical for Elrond’s other goal- exploring the issuance of crypto-linked debit cards.

Also possible would be Elrond’s work towards exploiting the e-money license with a legal regulatory framework to develop and issue stablecoins. Other technologies the team expects to explore include new decentralised finance (DeFi) projects, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and Web3 applications.

Elrond, which recently also acquired payments platform Utrust, first announced plans to snap up Twispay in October 2021. Over the last few months, the blockchain platform says it worked closely with relevant authorities to ensure the legal, tax and financial process of completing the acquisition is above board.

The conversations have therefore included the input of the Romanian central bank, audit firm Deloitte and Reff &Associates.

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.