Elrond has acquired a Romanian electronic money institution. This operation should allow Elrond to extend its financial services, and contribute to the realization of its ambitions to create a financial system open to all and especially interconnected with more traditional banking services, beyond the crypto nature of the original project.
Elrond Network and Twispay: towards the extension of Elrond’s financial services
On October 12, 2021, Elrond Network reported in a press release that the crypto company had acquired Capital Financial Services S.A., a payment processor and the first e-money issuing institution licensed by the National Bank of Romania.
The shares and licenses of Capital Financial Services will be transferred in full to Elrond. However, the finalization of the acquisition still requires the approval of the National Bank of Romania.
Capital Financial Services operates under the brand name Twispay. Elrond should thus benefit from the strategic advantages of the latter to reduce friction in transactions, but also to increase its user base and enrich its services.
Twispay is a member of Visa and Mastercard. More than 300 merchants benefit from its payment processing services. With the acquisition of Twispay, Elrond will be able to offer its customers financial services, such as the creation of accounts with IBAN, debit cards, the possibility to pay with electronic money, and this in full compliance with the regulations in force. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed.
Elrond Network’s ambitions: inclusive financial system and frictionless transactions
The acquisition is part of Elrond’s stated goal to “create the infrastructure for a transparent, high-bandwidth, low-latency financial system” as stated by its CEO, Beniamin Mincu, in the release. Mincu also said that Elrond wants to “give anyone anywhere easy access” to this infrastructure.
Strong ambitions around accessibility and financial inclusion, which are also shared by other large DeFi projects, such as CELO with its “DeFi 4 The People” program.
Elrond is once again showing its dynamism via this acquisition, which comes less than a week after it announced its partnership with Ardana, to make EGLD the first non-native Cardano (ADA) asset that can be used as collateral to mine the dUSD stablecoin.
