As Brex has skyrocketed in popularity, so too has the maturity of its client base. As a result, Brex has expanded its initial offering, which addressed the needs of early stage startups, to address both the evolving needs of its existing clients and a new segment to drive growth for the company. Brex now focuses on larger tech companies including ecommerce brands and businesses in the life sciences industry. Features include more detailed accounting controls, the ability to review and approve purchases, and integrations with popular accounting solutions.

“Brex’s focus on innovation in corporate credit cards aligns well with i2c’s mission to provide the most configurable and stable payments platform in the industry,” said Joseph DeRosa, EVP of Global Sales at i2c. “i2c’s ability to manage flexible corporate account structures, department and employee level control, and easy administration of expenses is a perfect fit.”

i2c’s agile payment platform offers advanced APIs and a robust suite of program management tools and controls which allows issuers and program managers to quickly launch programs, customize card features and functionality, and effectively communicate with cardholders to drive growth and best of class payment products in an everchanging market.

“Working with i2c has been a great enhancement to our payments processing capabilities,” said Cosmin Nicolaescu, Vice President of Engineering at Brex. “i2c’s flexible issuer processing platform gives us room to expand faster than before. This will enable Brex to deliver more innovative solutions to an even broader range of customers moving forward.”

The first-of-its-kind service in Singapore gives Singtel’s prepaid customers the convenience of registering their new SIM cards on their mobile phones and activating their mobile service 24/7. Designed to be fuss-free and easy, this self-registration process can be completed within 5 minutes. Singtel also introduced eKYC for its Dash customers to self-register for mobile remittance.

“As people increasingly turn to their mobile phones to get things done, our mobile-first approach ensures that customers can easily do what they need to on their own time and terms. By adopting technologies such as eKYC, our customers get the added convenience of self-registering their Singtel prepaid SIM cards, or doing a one-time registration for Dash remittance. For tourists in particular, they can register themselves in minutes and connect immediately with friends and family,” said Mr Yuen Kuan Moon, Chief Executive Officer of Consumer Singapore, Singtel.

“In a fast-moving world, the adoption of eKYC solutions not only makes it more convenient for consumers, but also drives businesses’ efficiency and competitiveness. We welcome Singtel’s initiative, and encourage more organisations to continually innovate their services,” said Ms Aileen Chia, Deputy Chief Executive (Policy, Regulation & Competition Development) and Director-General (Telecoms and Post), Infocomm Media Development Authority.

Singtel offers a variety of prepaid plans to suit customers’ communications needs, including the popular 2-in-1 Tourist SIM and EZ-Link Travel card and S$15 hi! SIM Card. Singtel prepaid SIM cards are available for purchase at over 1,000 sales points across the island, and will be expanded to include selected incoming regional flights, self-serve kiosks, as well as e-commerce platforms.

Ms. McGrath brings extensive experience as an executive in the global financial services sector across major consumer markets, including the US, the UK, Japan, Mexico, Hong Kong and Australia.

Over her distinguished 35-year career in financial services, Ms. McGrath has been recognised as global leader in payments innovation and loyalty and rewards and has successfully built and executed winning strategies around the delivery of credit, debit, prepaid, mobile and digital payment solutions and related value add services.

Most recently, Ms. McGrath served as Head of Business Transformation at Mastercard Australia where she led the business transformation and operational integration of a newly acquired loyalty solutions business. Ms. McGrath also previously served as Head of Go to Market Strategy at the company, where she was responsible for developing go to market strategies for deployment and acceptance of chip card technology across the US market. Prior to joining Mastercard, Ms. McGrath was a product manager responsible for EMV chip card product design, delivery and acceptance at Discover Financial Services. She also previously founded TXNPlus Global, a company that designed, implemented and supported mass market loyalty and reward programs for the global electronic payments industry. Ms. McGrath has also served as a Senior Chip Program and Project Manager at HSBC Hong Kong and prior to that role was as Senior Manager product development at ANZ Retail Banking.

“I am thrilled to be joining Verrency’s highly accomplished and diverse advisory board,” said Ms. McGrath. “Verrency’s platform is a game changer - it allows banks and other financial institutions to rapidly deliver cutting edge products and services on their own or with third parties, including auto-rounding, instalment credit access, and instant loyalty rewards, without migrating or replacing their legacy infrastructure. It is seriously good technology with a leadership team and advisory board that is as experienced as it is diverse. I look forward to working with David to help the company capture its enormous market potential.”

“We are excited to have Jan join our global advisory board to help guide our strategic direction and contribute to the success of our growing platform,” said David Link, Verrency Founder and CEO. “Her extensive global industry knowledge - built over a career working at some of the world’s largest financial institutions - is a tremendous asset as we work to deliver our world-class API platform that delivers cost effective value-added payments capabilities. Her dedication to innovation and her ‘no-nonsense’ understanding of what it takes to actually deliver payments innovation align perfectly with Verrency’s vision of empowering banks to easily offer their customers a hyper-personalised payments experience.”

Ms. McGrath’s appointment deepens Verrency’s global advisory board, at a time when the company is accelerating its global strategy, adding new customers and partners, and accelerating its market penetration around the world. The company, which was named Innovator of the Year at Australia’s FinTech Business Awards 2019, recently announced signed agreements with Colombia’s Banco Davivienda, UAE-based Emirates NBD and Australia's Volt Bank, among others.

Ms. McGrath earned a Master’s degree in Applied Science, Innovation and Change Management from RMIT University.

This marks the first time such service appears in Russia: until now, Russian companies and entrepreneurs could accept payments via WeChat Pay only at offline retail outlets.

The new option will suit any online business that is already working or planning to work with customers from China: services selling tickets for trains and airplanes, tickets for excursion tours, theater and museum tickets, websites of travel agencies, food delivery services, hotels, taxis, online stores, online training courses, and many other services.

Yandex.Checkout started enabling payment acceptance via WeChat Pay to offline companies in late 2018. The service is popular among the duty free shops in Russian airports. Now, companies operating online that are seeking to enter the Chinese-oriented market can also accept payments via WeChat Pay.

“Yandex.Checkout is already working with Chinese companies oriented towards Russian customers, and now it also offers Russian businesses new opportunities to work with customers from China. Payment acceptance via WeChat Pay can be a starting point for growth to a business that’s working with Chinese tourists within Russia or is looking at the international market with an interest in customers from China. Moreover, WeChat is an all-purpose service for working with customers: it’s both a payment solution and a promotional tool. Companies that will use all the features of this service will have excellent prospects for reaching a large audience of Chinese customers,” says Ilia Sokolov, Head of Asian business development at Yandex.Checkout.

“Yandex.Checkout is one of the strategic partners of WeChat Pay in Russia. The service already helps Russian stores to accept payments via WeChat Pay offline, and now it will help everyone who wants to do so online,” says Jeff Hu, Regional Director at WeChat Pay Europe.

Customers don’t need to pay a commission for payments made via WeChat Pay, as Yandex.Checkout only charges the seller. This payment method debits the money for the purchase from the user's balance in the WeChat messenger or from the bank card linked to it. User can spend up to 646 thousand rubles (69,185 yuan) to pay for a purchase at a time, and up to about 1.3 million rubles (139,227 yuan) per day.

Companies that already work with Yandex.Checkout won’t need to set anything up to add payment acceptance via WeChat Pay to their website: all that’s required is an additional contract. Companies that have not yet joined Yandex.Checkout will need to sign a contract and implement the payment solution.