MSL is excited to announce it has entered the Employee Benefits Market (“EBM”) in Europe, covering meal vouchers and employee benefit solutions, through a multi-year agreement with a new client in Southern Europe.

Globally, the EBM is worth over USD$68 billion and is expected to grow by USD$37 billion between 2024 to 20302. Europe represents 38%  of this market, or in excess of USD $26 billion per annum, making it one of the largest prepaid verticals in Europe. MSL’s first client is one of the three biggest providers in Southern Europe, with over 1 million users across approximately over 4,700 corporate clients and 92.500 beneficiaries.

Conor Doyle, Co-founder of MSL, said ‘Having won a detailed and technically challenging RFP against a number of global and regional issuing processors and technology providers, MSL was delighted to be selected. The deal with our initial client provides MSL with a platform to showcase its proprietary technology, enabling real-time benefit and payment with just one transaction, accessing multiple accounts and data in the background to orchestrate a seamless user experience. MSL has partnered with the first client to drive the transition to digital cards within Southern Europe in the EBM market and other verticals, and in the medium term in countries outside of Southern Europe’.   He went on to say ‘The vast experience of the MSL team in payments globally over decades, both in issuing and acquiring, gives us a huge competitive advantage against other players in the market and we believe we can give a unique product in the EBM marketplace’.

‘This contract with our first major client in the sector is a milestone agreement for us given the size of the EBM and the continued transition of meal voucher programs moving from physical vouchers to digital payment solutions. Our client is a proven market leader and we look forward to growing this program with them and continuing to build out our presence in the EBM industry”.   said Emilio Gutierrez Garcia, Head of Partnerships at MSL.

Lee Britton, fellow founder of MSL went on to say “In our solution we provide one card with many EMB wallets sat alongside the card, thus enabling Meal Voucher spend via one wallet and, say, travel payments to be routed and debited to another wallet. This solution provides a mechanism to roll out multiple wallets sitting behind just one card, thus enabling complete control over where the funds are spent and how much at a time, configurable at the wallet, not just at the card.  This type of spend control has many applications across the payments industry, not just EBM.  It is also the same approach we take to our multi-currency solution, where a wallet can be a currency or, say, specifically set aside for types of spend, controlled by type of merchant type, currency, country, time of day, transaction type etc or any combination thereof.  We know multiple companies that have spent millions and tried to deliver this type of product and failed, so to see it working successfully in the marketplace is exciting”

The EBM ecosystem at a glance:

• Meal vouchers have become a common part of employee benefit programs, growing to a €68 billion (€62 billion EURO) worldwide market annually;
• Meal vouchers include physical programs, and the digitisation of these physical vouchers provides a better user experience with heightened controls and reconciliation processes.
• The EBM market is expected to grow by an estimated USD$37 billion ($33 billion EURO) globally in the period 2024-2030;
• In the period to 2030, it is estimated that the EBM will accelerate at a CAGR of 6.5%;
• 38% of the market growth is expected to originate from Europe during the period to 2030;
• France, Italy, and Spain are the largest countries for the EBM solutions in Europe.
• The market is concentrated due to the presence of several large players.
• The tax benefits of meal vouchers is one of the key reasons expected to boost the meal vouchers and employee benefit solutions market growth in the next 5+ years.
• The evolving buying pattern of consumers, such as the developing preference for making online payments and digital payment methods, is expected to facilitate the growth in the EBM in Europe in the period to 2030.

About MSL Payments

Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with offices in USA and Spain, MSL provides an innovative payment solutions platform for banks, credit card issuers, eMoney and Payment Institutions and programs and program managers.  Currently already certified in Europe and Latin America Caribbean, MSL will continue to obtain certifications globally to help businesses all over the world create awesome customer experiences.

MSL offers a full range of services, including issuing processing either as managed service or as a licence (where the client becomes the processor) as well as market-leading program management and highly skilled payments expertise to create customisable feature-rich solutions for issuers, businesses, brands and their customers.

Come and explore the many opportunities our platform has to offer by visiting us at www.themsl.com  or contact us via info@themsl.com