News Roundup: Stripe Adds European Payment Methods

In our roundup of this week’s industry news, payment facilitators in the U.S. and in Europe are building out features and expanding their services.
Leading payment facilitator Stripe announced that it has added support for five local European payment methods: Bancontact, Giropay, iDEAL, SEPA Direct Debit, and SOFORT. European Stripe users who wish to accept these methods will need to integrate one unified API, and then activate the method they would like to enable, the company said in a blog post. Stripe said plans to enable U.S. businesses to accept these payment methods as well are in the works.
Stripe’s European businesses can also now enable 3D Secure.
ParentPay, a U.K. payment facilitator, announced that it has merged with SchoolComms, a parent engagement tool. ParentPay focuses on enabling parents to make school-related payments. SchoolComms’ services include a messaging platform that allows parents to communicate with their schools.
Together, the companies serve more than 8,000 schools and more than 3 million parents across the U.K.
“Our complementary products and focus on service excellence allows us to create the leading provider of parental payment and engagement services for schools and families in the UK,” Clint Wilson, chief executive of ParentPay, said in a press release.
PF BlueSnap has introduced BlueSnap Payments for Marketplaces, a global platform to support online marketplaces. The platform enables onboarding thousands of sellers through an API integration, handles real-time split payments, and delivers reporting marketplaces can use to manage their seller relationships, the company said.
Stockholm-based PF iZettle announced that it has added UnionPay to the payment methods merchants can accept with its card reader, iZettle Reader.
“This partnership will help the hundreds of thousands of business owners that use iZettle sell more by accepting more payment alternatives. Now, our merchants no longer need to turn away business from the millions of Chinese that visit Europe each year,” Johan Bendz, Chief Marketing Officer at iZettle, said in a press release.