Who Nium is
Nium is a global payments infrastructure company, co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore. From one platform it pays out to bank accounts, cards and wallets around the world, converts currencies, holds multi-currency accounts and issues physical and virtual cards on networks including Visa and Mastercard.
It is licensed in many countries: in the EU as an e-money institution regulated by the Bank of Lithuania, in the UK by the FCA, and in Singapore as a major payment institution under the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Banks, fintechs, marketplaces, travel and payroll companies use it, which is why it is a connector in three of our modules.
What it does in your platform
Payouts
Pays out in local currencies over local rails, real-time networks or SWIFT, to bank accounts, cards and wallets. Each payout leaves a customer's Nium wallet and is tracked through its lifecycle to completion.
FX
Gives the FX module live conversions, and rates that can be locked so a customer confirms the rate before the conversion runs.
Card issuing
Issues virtual and physical cards and adds them to Apple Pay and Google Pay through Nium's push provisioning SDK. Under Nium's delegated authorisation model, the platform decides each card payment against the customer's balance and limits in the ledger.
How the connection works
Nium's API serves all three modules, each through its own connector. Nium reports payouts, conversions and card events by webhook, and each status can also be read back from its API.
A payout is requested
A seller in Singapore is owed Singapore dollars, and the funds sit in a US dollar wallet at Nium. The module screens the payout and holds the amount in the ledger.
The rate is locked
The FX module asks Nium for a locked rate, which the customer or your team confirms before the conversion runs.
The payout is validated
Nium's payout validator checks that the request will go through before any money moves.
Nium sends it
The module calls Nium's Transfer Money API, and Nium picks the rail, such as FAST or PayNow in Singapore.
Webhooks follow it
Nium's payout webhooks report each stage, with an estimated delivery time, until the payout completes or comes back with an ISO 20022 return code. The ledger books every step.
Next to other providers
In payouts, Nium runs next to Wise Platform, Currencycloud and your own bank partners, with each payout going to the provider with the best coverage and speed for it and a fallback if one is down. In FX, the module compares Nium's rates with the other sources and keeps quoting if one stalls.
In card issuing, Nium is one of several issuer processors. The card screens, the controls and the ledger stay the same on each, so moving a programme later changes the connector, not your app, though cards may need to be reissued.
When Nium fits best
A strong fit when
- You want payouts, FX and cards from one provider.
- You pay out in Asia-Pacific as well as in Europe and the Americas.
- You want to issue cards without arranging a separate BIN sponsor.
Also worth a look
- Another payout network with deeper coverage in a corridor you use most, routed next to Nium.
- An issuer processor that works with your own BIN sponsor, if you already have one.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your Nium account and contract in place, for your payout countries, currencies and card markets.
The programme
We set up the wallets, payout routes and card programme with you: card types, controls and the authorisation model.
The keys
The API key stays in your platform's secrets and nowhere else, and Nium's webhooks carry an identifier set for your platform only.
A full test run
Payouts, conversions and card flows run in Nium's sandbox before your first real customer.
