Tyro Brings Alipay To Australian Airport; Paysend Rolls Out PaySendLink Service

Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes Tyro‘s integration of Alipay into airport duty-free shops in Australia. In addition, the U.K.’s Paysend rolled out a new service named PaySendLink, and Merchant Machine report found that cashless payments are gaining ground in the European Union.

Tyro, a business-only bank in Australia, rolled out Alipay integration with duty-free retailer Heinemann’s Sydney airport stores, according to an announcement. The company noted that 900 million users around the world tap into Alipay – and its partners – to pay for goods and services. With its solution, the company noted that businesses in Australia can help access the Chinese tourist market. Tyro CEO Robbie Cooke said in the announcement, “For our Chinese guests, Alipay is a familiar and preferred payment method, especially while traveling. Tyro is proud to have partnered with Heinemann to bring Alipay to the Australian market.”

And the U.K.’s Paysend rolled out a new offering called PaySendLink that lets users make cross-border remittances with a recipient’s cell phone number, according to reports. Recipients, in turn, can see the transfer and send it to a bank account, Mastercard, Visa or UnionPay card. “Besides being super convenient for the sender, PaySendLink also puts recipients’ worries at ease – they don’t have to send any personal information to a sender, only provide their phone number,” said PaySend CEO Ronald Millar, according to reports. “Their personal information is entered directly into our secure platform.” The offering comes after the company notched $20 million in a 2018 funding round.

And a Merchant Machine report found that cashless payments are gaining ground in the European Union, Yahoo! Finance reported: In fact, the report noted that cashless is the region’s most popular payment method, as digital and card payments brought in revenues of €120 trillion. The study noted that U.K. led countries in cashless revenue rankings, ranking Germany and France as having the second and third highest cashless revenue, respectively. In particular, the report noted that contactless payments jumped by 321 percent in the U.K.’s clothing industry in 2018.