INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Mobile Technology
Wirecard and Stocard
collaborate to launch mobile
payment feature and drive
contactless payment adoption
Wirecard, a global innovation leader
for digital financial technology,
is collaborating with Stocard, a
leading mobile wallet and one of the largest
B2C European FinTechs, to launch a new
mobile payment feature in the Stocard
app. The announcement comes as Stocard
reaches 50 million users worldwide. UKbased
Stocard users can now pay with their
app via a virtual Wirecard-issued Mastercard
card, an option that will be rolled out across
Europe later this year. Not only will Stocard
benefit from Wirecard’s bespoke Bankingas-a-Service
solution to launch this new
functionality, Wirecard is also providing the
acquiring service behind the wallet, allowing
users to load funds quickly and effortlessly by
adding their bank cards to the app.
Through the new mobile wallet solution,
Stocard users can now make contactless
payments in-store and online. Wirecard’s
research found that contactless payments
are booming across Europe: more than half
of British, French and German respondents
(57%) report using contactless payment
methods more frequently today than before
the spread of COVID-19. Over three-quarters
(78%) plan to continue making contactless
payments even after the crisis.
Stocard was founded in 2011 and is one
of the largest B2C start-ups in Europe in
terms of user base. The app allows users
to store all their loyalty cards on their
smartphones, discover good deals at their
favourite retailers, search for and activate
coupons, which are applied automatically
at the checkout with just one click, and see
their transactions and points balance in real
time. In 2019, shoppers made 1.7 billion
purchases with the app, spending close to
EUR40 billion annually.
“The launch of our mobile payment feature
is a major step for Stocard globally,” said
Björn Goß, Stocard Founder and CEO. “As our
wallets are moving to our mobile phones,
the digital wallet is becoming the central
hub in our lives for anything around money,
shopping and banking. The future of retail
and of banking will look more similar to what
we are already seeing in Asia with the likes
of Alipay, rather than what European banks
are currently doing. This consolidation of
shopping, payments and financial services
in the digital wallet will happen in Europe as
well. We are working closely with our retail
partners to shape this future.”
“The partnership with Stocard is an exciting
development in the move towards a cashless
society. With 50 million users, Stocard’s
success demonstrates just how much
consumers are shifting towards mobile
wallets and cashless payments. We are
excited to be collaborating both on the
issuing and acquiring side of the payment
flow thereby offering consumers a seamless
user experience. In the long-term we hope
to work with Stocard as they look to offer
additional services such as Point of Sale
lending and top up payments on a global
scale,” added Kilian Thalhammer, EVP
Product Management at Wirecard.
The co-operation between Wirecard and
Stocard is another example of Wirecard
providing its Banking-as-a-Service
infrastructure for leading FinTechs within the
payment ecosystem. •
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