Adyen Catches up with Stripe; Mastercard Launches New Payments System: News Roundup

PaymentFacilitator’s News Roundup is a curated mix of the past week’s news and articles from around the web, including company announcements, global payments news, and other coverage and analysis of topics relevant to payment facilitators.

Big Brands Doing Big Things

Adyen catches up with Stripe. The Amsterdam-based fintech is now giving Silicon Valley-based Stripe a run for its money – literally. With its stock surging almost 50% this year to a total valuation of around $22 billion, Adyen is now neck-and-neck with Stripe, whose market valuation climbed to $22.5 billion just this year. From Quartz.

Mastercard launches Bank in the Box in Caribbean. Targeting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) specifically, the global brand introduces an electronic payment system to cater exclusively to their market. Dubbed “Bank in the Box,” the kit contains a mobile card reader compatible with any phone and a Mastercard debit card – enabling merchants to begin accepting electronic payments in a plug-and-play format. From Loop.

PayMate and Visa partner to expand their reach. Viewed as an extension to the company’s 2018 partnership with Visa in the Indian marketplace, this most recent iteration targets Middle East, Africa and both central and eastern Europe. This initiative is targeting 2,000 SMEs over the next few months, with real estate, insurance and travel as the primary targets. From ET Tech.

India’s IRCTC launches proprietary gateway. The Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has responded to the drive towards digital with their own proprietary gateway. This app-based interface touts hassle-free travel booking using payment options such as credit, debit, UPI and international card. From Trak.in.

The Fraud Factor

Visa to raise security standards on VCMP and VFMP programs. The global brand intends to toughen the qualifying thresholds for their Visa Chargeback Monitoring and Visa Fraud Monitoring programs. The goal is to ensure merchants are transacting ethically and that transaction processing and data storage are both navigated on PCI-compliant systems. From The Paypers.

Digital Download

London looks to cashless to curb theft. Organized crime gangs are cleaning up the streets of London with a sledgehammer and a vacuum? Sources say these gangs are targeting parking meters across the city – smashing them with a sledgehammer and then vacuuming out what is now a significant amount of coin from the Kensington and Chelsea Council over the last 12 months. The city looks to cashless meters to curb the theft. From Daily Mail.

Fintech Forward

The call to lending continues. Payment acceptance is just the beginning for micro merchants looking to capitalize on and cater to the ever-expanding digital economy. Lending is the next, most obvious step beyond payment acceptance. Companies like Razorpay, Instamojo and PayU India are all jumping on the bandwagon with lending small amounts to start with and then expanding their offerings consistently. And they aren’t the only ones. From The Economic Times.