DECTA Partners with OpenPayd to Modernise Treasury Using Stablecoins

Payment technology provider DECTA has chosen OpenPayd to upgrade its international treasury operations, the companies announced August 11. The arrangement gives DECTA access to regulated, multi-rail infrastructure for operational settlement, integrated fiat services, over-the-counter currency conversion, and hybrid payment configurations aimed at improving liquidity management.

The infrastructure is used solely for DECTA's internal treasury activity. It does not extend to customer-facing crypto or foreign exchange services — a boundary the companies emphasised in the announcement and one that carries regulatory significance for DECTA's institutional clients and supervisors.

OpenPayd's platform provides embedded accounts, domestic and international payments, open banking connections, and stablecoin on- and off-ramps through a single API. The company reports processing more than $280 billion in annual transaction volumes for over 1,200 businesses, including digital asset platforms eToro, Kraken, OKX, and B2C2 — positioning it as an institutional digital-asset infrastructure provider rather than a consumer payments operator.

Stablecoins are becoming a practical treasury tool for businesses operating internationally, said Lux Thiagarajah, chief commercial officer at OpenPayd. The opportunity extends well beyond digital asset companies. Organisations want faster, more consistent ways to manage liquidity and settle obligations without adding operational complexity.

As we grow, our treasury operations need to be as modern and scalable as the payment infrastructure we provide to our clients, said Scott Dawson, CEO of DECTA UK. OpenPayd's infrastructure will allow us to improve speed and resilience while maintaining the strong controls and regulatory discipline that underpin everything we do.

The arrangement reflects an emerging pattern in the payments and banking-as-a-service sector: established payment processors adopting stablecoin-capable treasury rails for internal settlement without offering digital-asset access to end customers. This approach lets firms capture the settlement speed and liquidity efficiency that dollar- or euro-denominated stablecoins offer on certain corridors, while avoiding the customer-facing obligations that would trigger additional licensing or heightened scrutiny.

In the European context, the distinction carries regulatory weight. The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation (MiCA), which became fully applicable in December 2024, imposes distinct requirements on issuers and service providers dealing in asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens. By limiting use to internal treasury, DECTA and OpenPayd operate within a narrower regulatory perimeter better suited to MiCA's institutional provisions, without requiring DECTA to register as a crypto-asset service provider for this activity.

DECTA's existing infrastructure is built on Mastercard and Visa principal membership and direct integration with UnionPay International, giving it a network spanning traditional card rails and local payment methods across 32 countries. The OpenPayd layer sits alongside that stack as a treasury efficiency tool rather than a replacement for existing acquiring or issuing capabilities.

The competitive pressure comes from treasury management platforms and multi-currency banking providers that have similarly begun integrating stablecoin settlement corridors to compete on speed and cost of cross-border fund movement. DECTA serves banks, merchants, and e-money institutions, making internal treasury efficiency a direct input to its operational margins and pricing competitiveness.

The next markers to watch include the currency corridors where DECTA deploys the OpenPayd infrastructure first, the settlement time and cost benchmarks it achieves relative to correspondent banking, and whether the internal-only scope evolves as the MiCA framework beds in and institutional appetite for client-facing digital-asset services grows.

The arrangement signals that payment processors with established card network relationships see stablecoin treasury rails as a complement to — rather than a replacement for — traditional settlement infrastructure, particularly for cross-border liquidity management where speed and cost advantages are most pronounced.