Multi-currency cash passport to ease transactions—NBM

National bank of Malawi (NBM) has said the introduction of multi-currency cash passports replacing the Visa electron cards will enable cardholders to load multiple foreign currencies into one card for ease of transaction.

The Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE)-listed bank’s head of cards and e-banking William Kaunda told the media on Monday in Blantyre, the facility will give its customers control of money by enabling them to load more than one currency on purchase, providing a better way to carry travel money.

He said the multi-currency cash passport will enable cardholders to load multiple foreign currencies such as US dollar, pound, euro and Australian dollar onto one card when travelling to various destinations across the globe.

“Whether the cardholder is travelling to one destination or to a number of different destinations, the multi-currency cash passport is the better way to carry travel money,” said Kaunda, noting that the card is currently accessible in US dollar and the euro.

“In an event where the cardholder does not have the currency of the country they are visiting on their card, they can still use it to make payment as the card will automatically convert the currency of the card into local currency,” he said.

According to Kaunda, the card has the ability to withdraw local currency at over 2 million MasterCard automated teller machines (ATMs) worldwide and is accepted at over 35.9 million MasterCard locations globally.

He assured that there are no transaction fees when using the card to pay for goods or services.

“The great flexibility and added functionality of multi-currency cash passport means that as long as they have more than one currency loaded, the card will automatically select the next available currency starting from the US dollar,” explained Kaunda.

The card is as useful for individual trips because it is for multi-location trips and card holders can load different currencies onto it depending on where they are going, he said.

Kaunda said the bank has given a period of six months to customers to switch to the new cards, which will attract a fee of $10 (about K5 000).