Stripe in New Zealand; Cross-Border Education Payments: News Roundup
In a roundup of this week’s news, we report on payments powerhouses continuing to expand globally, a new application for QR codes in India, and an offer promoting card payments for cross-border tuition bills.
Leading payment facilitator Stripe announced that it has launched in New Zealand. New Zealand-based accounting software provider Xero is among the businesses that worked with Stripe in the region prior to its public launch, allowing the company’s users to accept credit card payments for invoice payments, Stripe said.
India’s Tata Power has introduced a QR code service for bill payment. Users will be able to scan QR codes printed on their utility bills with their BHIM or other UPI-linked mobile apps to pay their bills. According to the company’s statement, this is the first utility bill application for QR codes in India.
According to transaction data from payments processor Worldpay, mobile contactless transactions in the U.K. have more than tripled over the past year, totaling over £370 million in transaction value during the first half of this year. The overall amount spent through contactless transactions was £9 billion. Contactless transactions accounted for 38% of all non-cash transactions according to the company’s data.
“Mobile spending has shaken off the novelty tag, and is breaking its own spending records virtually every month. Granted there’s still some way to go before we start cutting up our cards and chucking away our wallets, but it’s easy to see why everyone from start-ups to tech giants is eager to have a stake in the technology,” James Frost, UK CMO for Worldpay, said in a press release.
Nikkei Asian Review reported that China’s payments giant Alibaba plans to bring a version of its mobile payments platform, Alipay, to Japan by next year.
The system will enable Japanese consumers to load funds or link payment accounts to a smartphone app and use it to scan QR codes displayed at merchants where they would like to make a purchase. Merchants will also be able to scan codes presented on the user’s phone.
Consumers will be able to use the app at the network of merchant locations where Alipay has already built up acceptance, the article said. Japanese users will also be able to use their app to make payments in China.
Boston-based payments provider Flywire announced last week that it is offering discounted prices on cross-border tuition payments made with Mastercard through September. The deal applies to students from 11 countries who attend schools outside their home country that offer Flywire as a preferred payment option, the company said.
“Mastercard’s partnership with Flywire provides a more streamlined and cost-effective way for parents and students to pay for tuition,” Linda Kirkpatrick, executive vice president of U.S. Market Development for Mastercard, said in a press release.
“This promotion targets Flywire’s extensive global network in the education space, and enables new acceptance of electronic payments in a vertical with significant opportunity for growth.”