Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 8 February 2018
Xero Makes Getting Paid Easier with New ACH Payment Integration through Stripe
Xero, a global small business accounting platform, announced the next phase of its partnership with Stripe, enabling Xero customers to accept Automated Clearing House (ACH) bank transfers via its integration with Stripe. With the availability of ACH payments, Xero’s more than 1.2 million subscribers have yet another way to get paid quickly, safely and securely.
“Our ultimate goal at Xero is to make sure small businesses are getting paid as quickly as possible, while making the experience from set up to reconciliation seamless,” said Craig Walker, Chief Technology Officer at Xero. “Building on our partnership with Stripe, this new feature gives our customers even more ways to get paid efficiently while keeping sensitive information safe.”
Enabling ACH in Xero is easy: from within Payment Services settings, Xero customers can login to their Stripe account to connect Stripe ACH bank transfers as a payment gateway. They can then connect this to an invoice theme, which will enable the “Pay Now” button on the invoices they send to their customers.
Amazon Business France launched
Amazon announced the launch of Amazon Business on amazon.fr, meaning that it is now available on three Amazon marketplaces across Europe. Companies with operations in the United Kingdom, Germany and France can now purchase business supplies in their local language, whilst accessing a range of business-tailored features designed to save time, money, and increase productivity.
Amazon Business combines over one hundred million business-relevant products – everything, from laptops, and office supplies, to industrial safety and janitorial supplies – with a set of unique features tailored for business customers. It’s everything that customers know and love about Amazon, but for business.
After launching in the UK in April 2017, Amazon Business now serves more than 90,000 business customers – from sole traders and small businesses to large multi-national organisations and FTSE 100 companies, as well as institutional buyers like universities, hospitals and non-profits.
“The launch of Amazon Business on amazon.fr enables multi-national businesses with entities in Europe to continue to streamline their purchasing, whilst also providing new exporting opportunities for smaller UK businesses who sell on the Amazon Business Marketplace,” said Bill Burkland, Head of Amazon Business, Amazon.co.uk.
Alipay arrives at Apple stores in China
Alipay, the world’s one of the largest online and mobile payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, announced an agreement to make Alipay available in Apple retail stores across mainland China, making it the first third-party mobile payment method to be accepted at the U.S. company’s brick-and-mortar stores anywhere in the world. The agreement covers all 41 of Apple’s physical stores in mainland China, the company’s largest retail market outside the U.S.
Apple users will also have access to a dedicated Apple section within the Alipay app, where they can find offers for online App Store purchases, bind their Apple account with their Alipay account, and access billing information for the App Store and Apple stores.
Alipay was made a payment option on the Apple China website and on the Chinese iTunes and App Store in November 2016.
Entrust Datacard and Gemalto partner to deploy effortless and affordable instant issuance
Gemalto has joined forces with Entrust Datacard, a provider of trusted identity and secure transaction technology solutions, to provide a unique, SaaS-based instant issuance solution for U.S. financial institutions. Instant issuance is a must-have for financial institutions
In 2006, instant issuance began to penetrate the payment card industry, and banks were presented with the opportunity to set themselves ahead of their competition by providing consumers with a higher level of service and differentiated products. With additional benefits to the solution, it has now become critical for financial institutions to integrate instant issuance into their portfolio. Aite Group’s Tiffani Montez agrees: “The ability to instantly issue a card in a branch was a luxury in the past, but as more and more issuers implement this capability, it is slowly moving from a nice-to-have to a must-have.”
Aite’s research also shows that from 2017 to 2021, the number of North American financial institutions who have implemented instant issuance will jump from 3,312 to 5,483, representing 55% market adoption.
