Interview: Shachar Bialick, CEO of Curve — Product, Compliance and the Road Ahead

Company summary: Curve at a glance, products, history and future

Curve is a European fintech focused on unified payments and embedded finance. Built around a card-first consumer and business proposition, Curve layers on card aggregation, multi-currency FX, account-to-account rails and developer-facing APIs to enable platforms, marketplaces and fintechs to embed payments and financial accounts. Curve has expanded from a consumer card product into a B2B platform offering IBANs, wallets, payment initiation and open banking connectivity via partnerships with regulated EMIs and banking partners across the UK and EEA. Its product set targets merchants and platforms that need card issuing, transaction routing, FX management, and modular compliance tooling rather than a full-stack retail bank.

Historically Curve gained traction by simplifying card management and adding value services such as smart routing, FX buffering and spending analytics. Over recent years Curve has matured toward platform-grade services: white‑label card issuing, virtual IBANs for businesses, SEPA and cross-border payment capabilities, PIS/AIS via Open Banking, and embedded finance modules for SaaS and marketplaces. Curve’s compliance posture emphasises partnership with regulated issuers and EMIs, an agent model for specific services, and readiness for incoming regulatory frameworks such as MiCA for crypto-related value services.

Looking forward, Curve’s roadmap prioritises deeper API parity with payment incumbents, broader SEPA Instant coverage and routing logic optimised for cost and speed, richer developer tools (sandbox, webhooks, SDKs), expanded acquiring options and tighter AML/fraud tooling tuned for platform and high-risk verticals. The strategic ambition is to bridge the gap between banks and payment processors: deliver banking primitives with fintech agility and a compliance-first approach for partners across Europe.

Full interview with Shachar Bialick, CEO

1. Tell us about your background and role at Curve.

Shachar Bialick: I founded Curve and serve as CEO, focusing on product strategy, partnerships and regulatory positioning. My background spans payments, startups and product-led growth. Day-to-day I split time between product roadmap decisions, commercial partnerships (issuers, acquirers, platforms) and ensuring our compliance and risk frameworks scale as we expand into new markets and verticals.

2. What is Curve’s current regulatory model across the UK and EU?

Shachar Bialick: Curve operates primarily through a mixed model: we partner with authorised Electronic Money Institutions and licensed banks for core issuance, custody and settlement functions while running an in-house compliance layer. For certain services we act as an agent of regulated partners, enabling faster go-to-market while retaining product control. This hybrid setup helps us offer IBANs, e-money wallets and card issuing across jurisdictions without positioning Curve as a retail bank.

3. Do you hold an EMI or payments institution licence directly?

Shachar Bialick: Curve leverages regulated partners for e-money issuance and settlement. We have regulatory approvals where required for specific product footprints and maintain a strong governance model to ensure partner compliance. We combine that with our internal PSP-level controls for transaction monitoring, sanction screening and record-keeping.

4. How do you approach MiCA and crypto-related regulation?

Shachar Bialick: We are tracking MiCA and equivalent rules closely. Any crypto-related value services would be offered through partners that hold the necessary VASP or custodial licences or via a controlled entity that meets local requirements. Our approach is conservative: embed crypto primitives only when regulatory clarity and partner compliance reach production-grade standards.

5. What are Curve’s core products today?

Shachar Bialick: Core products include:

Card issuing (physical and virtual) with BIN management and tokenisation.
IBAN issuing for business accounts and virtual accounts to receive collections.
SEPA (including SCT Inst where available) and cross-border payment rails.
Payment Initiation (PIS) and Account Information Services (AIS) via Open Banking partners.
Multi-currency wallets and FX routing with mid-market+ buffers.
Embedded finance modules for platforms: white-label cards, payouts, marketplaces reconciliation.
Onboarding and KYB/KYC flows, plus fraud and AML tooling integrated into the platform.

6. Which of these services are operated directly vs. through partners?

Shachar Bialick: Card product lifecycle, customer-facing API and business logic are built in-house. Issuance and settlement are underpinned by regulated issuer partners and scheme relationships (card networks). IBANs and SEPA rails are delivered via partner EMIs/banks where we do not hold direct settlement licences. PIS/AIS leverage licensed AISPs/ASPSPs and aggregators. Fraud detection, transaction scoring and rules engines are built and run by Curve, allowing consistent policy enforcement regardless of settlement partner.

7. Can you detail Curve’s IBAN issuing and SEPA Instant coverage?

Shachar Bialick: We provide business IBANs (virtual and physical) in selected jurisdictions via our banking partners. SEPA coverage includes standard SCT and targeted SCT Inst routing in markets where our partners or correspondent networks support instant transfer. We maintain routing logic to prefer SCT Inst when available and cost-effective, otherwise default to SCT with settlement SLAs aligned with partner clearing windows.

8. How does your SEPA Instant routing logic work?

Shachar Bialick: Routing decisions are algorithmic and consider: recipient bank instant capability, fee delta, transaction size (we limit instant for high-risk or high-value flows pending additional checks), and client configuration (some merchants opt out of instant to reduce fees). The routing stack evaluates these factors in real time and falls back automatically to non-instant rails when immediate settlement is unavailable or a compliance rule triggers manual review.

9. What Open Banking capabilities do you offer?

Shachar Bialick: We provide PIS for account-to-account payments and AIS for aggregated cash positions, reconciliations and balance fetching. Our Open Banking stack supports PSD2-compliant AISPs/PISPs via certified aggregators and direct integrations where required. APIs expose consent flows, payment initiation, balance and transaction enrichment endpoints suitable for treasury automation and merchant settlement workflows.

10. Do you offer acquiring or merchant acquiring services?

Shachar Bialick: We do not operate as a standalone acquirer. Curve integrates with several acquiring partners and processing networks to offer card acceptance, routing and reconciliation features to merchants and marketplaces. For clients who want a tighter experience, we can orchestrate acquiring relationships and offer a managed acquirer model in which Curve handles PSP orchestration, settlement visibility and dispute workflows.

11. What onboarding timelines and documentation do you require for a new platform client?

Shachar Bialick: Standard onboarding timelines:

Startups/small business: 2–4 weeks (subject to full KYC documentation and business model review).
Mid-market: 4–8 weeks (includes KYB, financials, AML sampling and integration testing).
Large enterprise / regulated platforms: 8–12 weeks (formal contracting, detailed compliance mapping, tech integration).

Required documentation typically includes corporate registration, ownership structure (UBO), proof of operational address, recent financials, revenue model, sample contracts, AML/KYC policies, and a sandbox integration plan. High-risk verticals (crypto VASPs, adult, gambling, affiliate marketing) require enhanced due diligence and can extend timelines.

12. What is Curve’s risk appetite and compliance approach?

Shachar Bialick: We adopt a risk-tiered approach: we support a wide range of B2B use cases but apply stricter controls on high-risk verticals. Our compliance stack combines automated transaction monitoring, real-time sanction and PEP screening, device/fraud telemetry and manual reviews for edge cases. We also require partners to meet our onboarding thresholds and conduct continuous monitoring to detect behavioural drift.

13. How do you support higher-risk verticals like crypto platforms, adult services or affiliates?

Shachar Bialick: We support crypto VASPs and other higher-risk clients via enhanced due diligence, escrowed settlement models and specialist compliance wrappers. We do not offer speculative crypto custody directly without partner-held licences. For adult and affiliate verticals, we require detailed customer flow diagrams, content moderation proof, and ongoing transactional pattern monitoring; acceptance is case-by-case.

14. Describe your technical stack and developer experience.

Shachar Bialick: Our stack exposes RESTful APIs with predictable resources for accounts, payouts, card issuance, webhooks and event streams. We provide a sandbox environment, SDKs for major languages, detailed API docs, and a production dashboard for reconciliation and dispute management. Real-time webhooks power event-driven workflows; API keys and OAuth tokens secure access. We prioritise idempotency, retries and transparent error codes to reduce integration friction.

15. What fraud and AML tooling is embedded in the platform?

Shachar Bialick: Curve ships with a built-in risk engine: rule-based flagging, behavioural scoring, velocity checks, device fingerprinting and machine-learning models for pattern detection. We integrate with global sanctions and adverse media data providers and provide clients with configurable rules and thresholds. For platforms, we offer reconciliation hooks and alerts so customers can embed chargeback and dispute policies into their workflows.

16. How does pricing work for platform and enterprise customers?

Shachar Bialick: Pricing is modular: setup fees for integration and compliance onboarding, per-transaction fees that vary by rail (card, SEPA, cross-border) and subscription tiers for access to features such as IBANs, advanced reconciliation or priority support. For larger customers we offer volume discounts, FX pass-through or blended FX margins, and bespoke contracting that bundles acquiring costs where we manage the acquirer relationship. Typical per-transaction economics align with other fintech processors—competitive with Stripe/Adyen when combining card+FX+IBAN services for platforms.

17. How do you position Curve versus Stripe, Adyen, Banking Circle, Swan and Lemonway?

Shachar Bialick: Curve differentiates by combining card aggregation, IBANs and platform-grade orchestration in a single API surface while maintaining strict compliance controls. Compared with Stripe and Adyen, we prioritise flexible routing and bank-grade settlement partnerships rather than large-scale acquiring operations; this lets us adapt commercial models for platforms. Versus Banking Circle and Swan, Curve provides broader developer tools and card issuing capabilities. Compared to Lemonway, Curve focuses more on card-first experiences and multi-rail orchestration. Our goal is complementary: customers sometimes use Curve plus an acquirer or banking partner to optimise cost and functionality.

18. Recent industry/regulatory headlines have increased scrutiny on e-money and payment firms. How has Curve responded?

Shachar Bialick: We have reinforced partner governance, increased transparency in settlement reporting and strengthened customer due diligence. On the product side we’ve accelerated improvements to our transaction monitoring system and reduced time-to-review via automated workflows. We also expanded legal and compliance resources to ensure timely responses to supervisory inquiries and to maintain continuity for our clients during periods of regulatory change.

19. There have been product updates in the market around embedded payments and virtual accounts. What has Curve launched recently?

Shachar Bialick: Recently we have focused on expanding our IBAN footprint, improving SEPA Instant routing logic and launching richer webhooks and reconciliation endpoints for marketplaces. We also rolled out a developer-friendly sandbox and pattern libraries for embedded card flows and marketplace settlement, reducing integration time and making reconciliation predictable for multi-party payouts.

20. How do you manage FX and cross-border transactions?

Shachar Bialick: FX is managed via a combination of in-house pricing controls and partner liquidity pools. We route cross-border payments optimising for cost and speed: prefer local clearing partners where available, use correspondent networks when necessary, and apply FX margins transparently. For larger clients we offer hedging and fixed-rate agreements to stabilise FX exposure.

21. What SLAs and uptime guarantees do you provide?

Shachar Bialick: Our APIs target industry-standard SLAs (99.9%+ for core API availability) with monitoring and incident procedures. Payment processing uptime depends on partner rails (card schemes, banking partners), but our orchestration layer provides retries, queueing and failover to reduce customer impact. Enterprise contracts include availability clauses and dedicated support SLAs.

22. Can you describe typical integration architecture for a marketplace using Curve?

Shachar Bialick: Typical architecture: the marketplace integrates Curve’s API for onboarding (KYB/KYC), issues virtual IBANs or cards to sellers, and wires payouts via SEPA/ACH or card settlements. Transactions are routed through Curve’s orchestration to the optimal acquiring or banking partner. Webhooks notify the marketplace of payment states, disputes and chargebacks; the reconciliation dashboard and APIs surface statement-level granularity.

23. What are the main technical and compliance pitfalls customers should prepare for when integrating with Curve?

Shachar Bialick: Technical pitfalls: underestimating idempotency and webhook handling or inadequate reconciliation processes. Compliance pitfalls: incomplete KYB documentation, misunderstood risk profiles for high-risk verticals, and not implementing transaction monitoring on their side for marketplace flows. We help customers with onboarding checklists and integration patterns to mitigate these issues.

24. What is on Curve’s roadmap for the next 12–24 months?

Shachar Bialick: Priorities include broader SEPA Instant reach and deterministic routing, expanded IBAN coverage across more EEA markets, native support for multi-entity reconciliation for marketplaces, deeper SDKs and plugins for common commerce platforms, and modular acquiring orchestration capabilities. We’re also investing in advanced fraud models, stronger KYB automation and tools for treasury automation (sweep, pooling) for platform clients.

25. Longer term, where do you see Curve in five years?

Shachar Bialick: We aim to be the orchestration layer that platforms select when they need banking primitives plus card and payouts—an API-first partner that reduces the friction of building payments infrastructure. We expect to offer richer embedded finance capabilities, including credit and receivables products via regulated partners, while maintaining a compliance-first operating model.

26. How do you handle data residency and privacy across jurisdictions?

Shachar Bialick: We follow jurisdictional data residency requirements: sensitive payment data is stored with partner custody models where mandated, and personal data processing is compliant with GDPR. Our platform supports regional hosting configurations and data minimisation practices to meet enterprise and regulator demands.

27. What types of clients and verticals are you seeing the most traction from?

Shachar Bialick: High traction from SaaS marketplaces, B2B platforms needing payouts and multi-party settlements, fintechs seeking issuer and settlement abstraction, and growth-stage e-commerce businesses that want consolidated card and bank rails. We also see interest from regulated crypto platforms that prefer an orchestration layer to manage fiat on/off ramps alongside compliance wrappers.

28. How do you approach partner selection (issuers, acquirers, aggregators)?

Shachar Bialick: Selection criteria include regulatory standing, operational SLAs, geographic coverage, cost competitiveness and integration flexibility. We prefer partners that enable our API-driven model and provide transparency in settlement and risk management. We also require strong controls for AML and operational resilience.

29. What enterprise-level reporting and reconciliation capabilities do you provide?

Shachar Bialick: We expose transaction-level reporting, settlement statements, dispute logs and chargeback timelines via API and dashboard. Clients can download periodic statements, map transactions to internal orders via metadata and receive webhook notifications for settlement events. For large customers we provide scheduled reporting exports and direct SFTP delivery.

30. Final advice for fintechs choosing a payments orchestration partner today?

Shachar Bialick: Choose a partner with clear regulatory boundaries, transparent economics, and an API-first product that matches your governance requirements. Validate their partner ecosystem (issuers, acquirers, fraud vendors) and ask for real-world references in your vertical. Prioritise integration patterns and reconciliation features—operational pain is often in post-transaction workflows rather than the initial payment call.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Does Curve have an EMI licence?

Curve operates using a partner-based model with regulated Electronic Money Institutions and banks for issuance and settlement. Curve retains product control and compliance oversight while leveraging partners’ regulatory authorisations for core custody and clearing functions.

Can Curve issue IBANs to my marketplace?

Yes. Curve issues virtual IBANs for eligible business customers in supported jurisdictions via partner banks. Availability depends on jurisdiction and the marketplace’s risk profile.

Is SEPA Instant supported?

Curve supports SEPA Instant where supported by our partners and the counterparty bank. Routing logic chooses SCT Inst when available and cost-effective, with fallbacks to standard SEPA clearing as needed.

How long does onboarding take?

Typical onboarding ranges from 2–12 weeks depending on company size, vertical risk and documentation completeness. High-risk verticals require more extensive due diligence and may take longer.

Can Curve work with crypto exchanges or VASPs?

Curve supports crypto platforms through enhanced due diligence and partner-based custody or compliance arrangements. We require VASPs to meet regulatory standards and often structure flows via licensed partners to manage custody and AML obligations.

Do you provide acquiring services directly?

Curve does not operate as a bank acquirer in the traditional sense. We integrate multiple acquiring partners and can manage those relationships on behalf of clients to offer a unified experience.

What developer tools are available?

Curve provides REST APIs, SDKs, a sandbox environment, webhooks, and a production dashboard. Documentation includes integration guides, reconciliation examples and sample code for common flows.

How does Curve handle fraud?

Curve combines rule-based blocks, behavioural scoring, device fingerprinting and external data feeds for sanctions and adverse media. Clients get configurable controls and alerts for suspicious activity.

Are there volume discounts?

Yes. Pricing is tiered and negotiable for volume, with enterprise packages that bundle fees and offer bespoke rates for FX and settlement services.

What markets are planned next?

Curve is expanding IBAN coverage and SEPA reach across the EEA and enhancing support for multi-entity treasury workflows. Specific market launches depend on partner agreements and local regulatory readiness.

Citations

Curve company pages and product documentation; industry regulatory updates and recent announcements from Curve’s public communications.