Visa is piloting a new suite of crypto APIs with First Boulevard, a Black-owned neobank still in semi-stealth mode.
The Kansas City, Mo., bank will be one of the first to launch with cryptocurrency services as a core offering, enabling customers to purchase, hold and trade digital assets, Visa announced Wednesday.
Visa is making a concerted effort to add
The First Boulevard pilot will serve as a key first step in supporting API capabilities for Visa banks to access and integrate crypto features into their products, Visa said in a press release.
Visa’s crypto platform provider Anchorage, a San Francisco-based crypto services startup, will provide the infrastructure enabling First Boulevard to test and learn how banks without their own digital currency infrastructure can buy and sell digital assets, Visa said.
“With this pilot program, we want to extend the value of Visa to our neobank and financial institutions clients by providing an easy bridge to crypto assets and blockchain networks,” Jack Forestell, Visa’s chief product officer, said in the release.
First Boulevard, which recently changed its name from Tenth Bank, aims to use a combination of financial education and modern banking tools — including educational resources developed along with Visa — to improve the prosperity of Black consumers.
“The First Boulevard mission is to help Black America build wealth,” said Hawkins, who served as “entrepreneur in residence” at crosstown startup nbkc bank before founding Griffin Technologies, a startup focusing on customer insights that’s also in Kansas City, in 2018.
Visa simultaneously announced partnerships with four other Black-operated financial operations as part of its mission to shrink the wealth gap in Black communities. Black consumers represent $1.4 trillion in annual spending, but as a group they hold less than 15% of the wealth of the average white American family, Visa said in a separate press release.
CapWay, an Atlanta-based digital bank founded by CEO Sheena Allen, will receive support from Visa for its CapWay Visa Debit card, whose benefits are structured to benefit Black community members. CapWay is part of the Visa Fintech Fast Track program.
eatOkra, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., will get help from Visa in launching a Visa digital prepaid debit card offering rewards and discounts for shopping at businesses that are touted through eatOkra’s directory app listing Black-owned restaurants, bakeries, cafes, food trucks, bars and wineries.
Visa is also partnering with Boston-based One United Bank, the nation’s largest Black-owned bank, for its new #OneTransaction campaign encouraging Black families to select and accomplish a key financial goal in 2021. Visa will co-sponsor OneUnited’s free OneTransaction Virtual Financial Conference set for Juneteenth, June 19, 2021.
Media firm Urban One, which targets Black Americans through radio, TV and digital channels, is partnering with Visa for the One VIP digital debit account that awards users points for shopping at Black-owned businesses, with points redeemable for cash or donations to Black charities.
