Today in the Connected Economy: Mastercard Expands Paysafe Partnership

Today in the connected economy, Mastercard and Paysafe bring the Mastercard Send service to the European Union and the United Kingdom. Plus, Amazon offers Prime members discounts on its Fresh grocery service, while Netflix steps up its efforts to accept alternative payment methods in Asia and the Pacific.

Mastercard, Paysafe Expand Tie-Up With Faster Payments From Mastercard Send

Mastercard and Paysafe are expanding their partnership to bring the Mastercard Send service to Paysafe’s payments platform in the EU and the U.K. Mastercard Send allows people and organizations to send and receive money around the world in near real time and is designed to help banks, businesses and others modernize the way they send payments. The partnership lets users send money quickly to cards, bank accounts and mobile wallets.

Amazon Follows Grocery Loyalty Trend, Extends Prime Benefits to Fresh

Amazon said it will offer Prime members 20% off select items at Amazon Fresh stores beginning Wednesday (June 29). “Prime members get the best of shopping, savings and entertainment every day from Amazon, and we’re thrilled to add another benefit to their membership,” said Jeff Helbling, vice president of Amazon Fresh.

Netflix Pledges to Localize APAC Payment Methods

Netflix said it wants to localize payment methods in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region to make subscriptions easier for people who pay with services such as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), digital wallets, and direct carrier billing. The number of new subscribers joining Netflix with an alternative payment method more than tripled between 2020 and 2021, while the company added 16 new payment methods during that same period.

Oracle Debuts Restaurant Payment Tool

Business software maker Oracle has unveiled a payment cloud service for restaurants, letting diners pay for meals with all major payment options. The new product, dubbed Oracle Food and Beverage Payment Cloud Service, allows restaurants to take debit and credit cards, along with Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. Because the service uses Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), “it has high security standards, end-to-end encryption,” and is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Trustly, Gr4vy Ink Deal for Open Banking Payment Services

Open banking account-to-account (A2A) transaction provider Trustly has launched a partnership that will see it added as a payment option on the cloud-based payments platform Gr4vy. The arrangement gives merchants using the Gr4vy platform a less expensive way to accept payments with a higher approval rate than with traditional platforms. Founded in 2008, Trustly works with 8,100 merchants, connecting them with 525 million consumers and 6,300 banks in more than 30 countries.