CASE STUDY | CURRENSEA CASE STUDY MCLEAR Breaking new ground in regulation and compliance to deliver first of its kind travel money innovation Wearable paytech programme sought GPSspecial helped collaboration Currensea revolutionise for charitablethe giving establishedinitiative model of travel money products by becoming the UK’s very first CBPII - Card based paymentGlobal Processing instrument Services issuer. (GPS) extends financial About Currensea inclusionSituation activities by enabling fee-free donation AboutCurrensea McLEAR, is the UK’s first free travel through McLEAR. money card linked directly to bank Despite the availability of a huge variety of travel money services McLEAR,accounts. in Strategic Alliance with VISA Inc, from fintechs, consumers incur high fees by using their bank debit is a leading wearable technology company The card works by acting as an Situationcard while paying abroad. Currensea recognised there was an for payments, security, and fashion globally. unmet need for an alternative solution but, to bring it to market, McLEARextension prominently of an individual’sshowcased the existingworld’s McLEARthey would is the need pioneer to revolutionise of wearable payment the established technology modelfor consum of currenters firstbank, payment allowing Ring alongsidethem to VISA spend at the directly Rio andtravel businesses. money products. Since 2018, their Smart Ring has enabled over 100,000 Olympics,from their Super account, Bowl 51, Eurovisioneliminating 2017, the Ringholders to make contactless payments globally with a simple tap of andneed FIFA to Confederate open a new Cup 2017.one. McLEAR Currensea wanted to solve the problem by connecting its service a hand. hasCurrensea unveiled itshas exclusive partnered executive-class with the directly to the consumers ’ bank account. Their innovative and smartfollowing Ring to highissuers street world-wide. banks: McLEAR Lloyds, Theambitious strong commercialprogramme success would of offer its Smart consumers Ring overthe recent convenience years has of invented the first NFC-based smart Ring and Bank of Scotland, Halifax, RBS, beenusing in their step regularwith the globalbank debittrend towards card but contactless with the paymentsimproved thatvalue has and is responsible for kick starting the wearable NatWest, Ulster, Nationwide, Barclays, beenuser drivenexperience by market usually dynamics, associated speed withand consumer a fintech convenience. solution. technology Ring space under its previous Santander, HSBC, First Direct and TSB. More‘We were recently,breaking COVID-19 new has ground further andaccelerated knew needed consumer the adoption support of of a brand name of NFC Ring® It is also authorised by the Financial contactlessprocessor payments.that was up to the challenge,’ said James Lynn, Co- Conduct Authority and uses the latest Founder, Currensea. ‘GPS was a natural choice because of their While this is good news for the growth of contactless payments, McLEAR bank security and encryption outstanding track record of innovation, reputation for working saw the need to address an important unintended consequence of its technology. technologyquickly and innovation. iteratively as well as strong partner relationships.’ ‘Charities need to safeguard their ability to raise funds and do their invaluable work in a society that is becoming increasingly cashless,’ said Daniel Blondell, About GPS Chief Operating Officer of McLEAR. ‘Technology could be crucial to their survival“…neither but many do Mastercardnot have the resources nor to develop Visa digital donation GPS is the issuer processor enabling platforms. We wanted the McLEAR Smart Ring to be a force for good and to have any other issuers with many of today’s most high-profile use our technology to do something meaningful that encourages generosity About GPS fintech innovators and disruptors. andsimilar communal spirit.propositions To be able to do this, worldwide.” McLEAR has partnered with GPS is the issuer processor enabling many of Parsnip to provide Ringholders with added benefits, such as the ability to earn Certifiedtoday’s most by high-profile Mastercard Fintech and innovators Visa to and cashbackJames and Lynn, donate CEO, part of Currensea the money earned to UK-registered charities, processdisruptors. and manage any credit, debit while charging no fees or making deductions from donations or Gift Aid. or pre-paid card transaction globally, GPSCertified enables by Mastercard the emerging and Visa to payments process and manage any credit, debit or pre-paid card industry to deliver breakthrough Challenge transaction globally, GPS enables the emerging Challenge innovationspayments industry through to deliver a breakthrough unique In order to achieve its goal, Currensea needed to deliver the first combinationinnovations through of aproprietary unique combination of McLEAR wanted to ensure that there was a technical solution in place so 100% solution to market that met the European Commission’s vision of technology,proprietary technology, its people its people and and partners. partners. of the amount donated would be received by the nominated charity. debit cards being separated from the underlying payment account. GPS has integrated with over 40 The team knew that it needed to capture transactions at the point of sale, move GPS has integrated with over 40 issuing banks issuing banks globally and operates Currenseafunds from its, in customers’ close collaboration wallets, and settlewith GPS,those neededfunds and to disburse break newthe globally and operates programmes for 100+ programmes for 100+ clients in 60 grounddonations in to the every fintech user-nominated industry bycharity. becoming Usually, authorised each paymentby would the FCA incur as clients in 60 countries using over 150 currencies, countriesenabling its clients using to over innovate 150 and currencies, deliver thea transaction UK's first fee CBPII from -theCard processor, based sopayment finding instrumenta way around issuer.this cost would enablingexciting new its value clients propositions to innovate for end users and be an important challenge to overcome. Together, the teams would need to work through every detail of how deliveraround the exciting world. new value propositions Currensea’s unprecedented product would work from a regulatory, for end users around the world. compliance and technical perspective. www.globalprocessing.com www.mclear.com 1 1 CASE STUDY | CURRENSEA CASE STUDY MCLEAR Solution SolutionGPS worke d closely with Currensea to understand the ‘It would have been a huge challenge for any organisation to tackle – creating something enabled by changes in Inscale a collaborative of its innovation effort, the and GPS how and that McLEAR could teams work in a regulation, that had never been done before,’ said Lynn. assessedprocessing how infrastructure. this process could Currensea work financially,needed technically to work ‘GPS had the agility, innovative appetite and willing to andclosely administratively. with the Financial The solution Conduct would Authorityneed to support (FCA), the overcome this.’ newMastercard features suchand asOpen RingPay Banking Giving, to RingPaybring its Rewards solution and to RingPaymarket. Cashback while ensuring that the customer journey Currensea chose not to use a third-party aggregator to wasTogether, seamless Currensea and simpleand to encourage GPS dedicated donations over without 18 months any gain direct access to the Open Banking framework to chargeto both to the the regulatorycharity. framework and direct Open retain greater control over development of future propositions. While increasing the project’s complexity, ‘GPSBanking plays integrations. a very active role‘GPS in played supporting a crucial payment role in these it would enable Currensea to work hand in hand with programmespartnerships,’ that explained are financially Lynn. inclusive ‘They helpedand socially establish UK Banks who could test and refine the new APIs to responsible,’the art of the said possible Blondell. and ‘We translatedtook our idea that to the into team a viable to see ensure implementation of a reliable and compliant ifprocessing there was anything and transactional they could do solution. to help. GPS immediately solution. sawThe theexperience social value and of whatstrong McLEAR relationship and Parsnip with were Mastercard launchingthat GPS andbrought agreed to that the it projectwas not fairmeant to either the theinitial charity or At the time of writing, neither Mastercard nor Visa have thechallenges consumer that if fees emerged were levied could on donationsbe overcome to good both causes.’ any other issuers with similar propositions worldwide. swiftly and effectively. “Currensea’s user base and “GPStransaction plays a veryvolumes important rapidly role grew in supporting payment programmes% thatwell are in excessfinancially of 200% inclusive each and month” socially responsible” James Lynn, CEO, Currensea 200 Daniel Blondell - Chief Operating Officer, McLEAR Benefits In collaboration with GPS, Currensea has delivered a genuinelyBenefits ground-breaking programme through direct integration with the Open Banking framework and all majorGPS has high enabled-street McLEAR banks. to achieve the distinction of Consumersbecoming the canfirst now wearable enjoy payment lower technologytransaction brand fees to and improvedactively encourage user experience their Ringholders with theto support game -charitieschanging and be convenienceable to pass on of the paying full benefit