SafeCharge has been granted approval for issuing activity by MasterCard Europe, which will allow SafeCharge to issue pre-paid MasterCard products.

SafeCharge

The company has also appointed Ali Farid Khwaja as executive vice president of its new card-issuing division.

Khwaja, who will join SafeCharge in February, is a former financial technology analyst at Berenberg, where he specialised in payments.

SafeCharge CEO David Avgi said: “The approval enables us to issue our own and co-branded prepaid cards and is a significant step in building a new pillar to our business.

"We are excited to be continuing to expand our product offering, entering into a new and large market sector and to welcome Ali [Farid Khwaja] to drive its growth."