Tap Global Group plc (AIM: TAP), the AIM-listed digital finance platform, has appointed Moorwand Ltd as issuer and Bank Identification Number sponsor for a new Tap Mastercard programme, extending an existing partnership that already underpins the e-money accounts in the Tap app.
The move is primarily a product upgrade. The current Tap card is euro-denominated, meaning that purchases in other currencies trigger a conversion at the point of sale. The new card is designed to let customers spend directly from whichever currency balances they hold in the app: a customer paid in sterling spends in sterling; a customer travelling in a local-currency market draws down a balance held in that currency. Tap says the multi-currency card has been its most-requested feature from its base of approximately 400,000 users.
The commercial logic
The arrangement carries a direct revenue rationale. Card interchange fees and foreign-exchange margin are both operating revenue lines for the Group, alongside trading fees and what Tap calls Tap Earn income. Putting more currencies on a single card and expanding into additional markets widens the pool of transactions against which both revenue streams accrue. Tap did not disclose projected interchange volumes, FX spread assumptions or a timeline for the additional market launches.
Moorwand is an FCA-authorised Electronic Money Institution and a principal member of Mastercard, which means it can act as BIN sponsor without routing through a third-party processor for scheme access. That principal membership is commercially significant: it reduces the number of intermediaries between Tap and the Mastercard network, lowers per-transaction cost in principle and, according to Tap, gives the Group a single platform on which to develop new card features and payment use cases as it enters new markets.
Arsen Torosian, group CEO and co-Founder, said: “A multi-currency card has been the feature requested most often by our customers, and this programme delivers it. It also gives us a stronger foundation for new payment features and expansion into additional markets over time. Card interchange and FX are operating revenue, so every card we put in a customer’s hand earns for the Group.”
Market and regulatory context
The multi-currency prepaid card space is well-populated. Wise, Revolut and several other FCA-regulated e-money institutions already offer cardholders the ability to hold and spend in multiple currencies from a single account, and competition on FX spread is intense in that segment. For Tap, the differentiation proposition is integration with its crypto-adjacent digital finance app rather than a standalone prepaid product.
From a regulatory standpoint, card issuance in additional markets will require compliance with local licensing and Mastercard scheme rules on a market-by-market basis, as Tap acknowledges in its announcement. The FCA authorisation that Moorwand holds is valid in the UK and, under the post-Brexit framework, does not automatically passport into EU jurisdictions. Any European expansion will require its own regulatory pathway, either through Moorwand’s EU entity or a separate issuing arrangement. That incremental compliance overhead is worth watching as the Group’s market expansion plans become more specific.
The October 2025 e-money partnership with Moorwand provides a working foundation. Consolidating both the account and card infrastructure under a single principal partner reduces operational complexity and, in theory, should accelerate future product iteration. The near-term markers for investors and observers will be the timing of card launch for existing users, the specific additional markets targeted and any disclosure of early card-spend data.
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