Payments round-up: 29 November 2017
No quiet days, and no respite from the action. Our latest paytech round-up stars Instarem, Form3, Starling Bank, Optile and Worldpay.
Singapore-headquartered start-up Instarem has expanded into Malaysia, “solidifying its presence” in Asia Pacific (APAC). The firm already has individual and corporate customers in Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong.
Instarem says it has licences in eight markets, and offers cross-border money transfers to over 60 countries. The start-up states it does not charge any fixed fee for P2P payments. It charges a “small percentage” of the mid-market FX rate as an FX charge. Back in September, it opened an office in Lithuania. It adds that it will also start its India operations in December, following recent approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Instarem currently employs more than 100 staff and has raised $18 million from investors Vertex Ventures, Fullerton Financial Holding, GSR Venture, Rocket Internet and SBI-FMO fund.
Starling Bank performs with Form3
Form3, a cloud technology provider of processing for banks and fintechs, has announced general availability of its UK Faster Payments real-time service (“under two seconds”) with Starling Bank.
According to Form3, standardised on-boarding and its internet based API allow customers to go live with a real-time full agency banking service within six weeks. Customers can get individual payments “in and out” of up to £250,000, their own sort code, addressable UK account numbers and IBANs for their end customers, and automated payment workflows. Additional access models are also available to support Bacs and the European SEPA Instant equivalent for direct scheme access and full scheme membership.
Munich-based Optile, an open payment platform, has teamed with Worldpay, to cover several clients in various industries. The newest client is windeln.de SE, an online retailer in Europe. The company also operates a cross-border e-commerce business with customers in China.
At the moment, windeln.de SE is expanding its business with Worldpay’s payment processing. Optile will provide PCI compliant connection between both firms. As both companies were connected to Optile prior to integration, “neither company will see a change in their systems nor will they have to complete any additional setup to allow windeln.de to start using Worldpay’s services”.
