Tappy Teams With Etisalat For Wearables; Nets Rolls Out PayCollect For Merchants

Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes Singapore’s Nets PayCollect rollout. In addition, Xero is working with GoCardless in New Zealand on payment collection, and Tappy Technologies is teaming up with Etisalat for wearable payments in the UAE.

Singapore’s Nets has rolled out an online collections and billing offering called PayCollect to enable businesses to create invoices and collect payments, The Straits Times reported. To use the services, merchants can make payment requests through email or text message. Customers, in turn, will be able to make payments by NetsPay, United Overseas Bank, DBS or OCBC apps. The service could serve smaller companies like dry cleaners and tuition providers. Nets Solutions Managing Director Ricky Lim told the paper, “PayCollect is an end-to-end solution that effectively solves the last-mile collection problem for businesses by moving their entire billing cycle online and providing their customers with the ability to make e-payments directly and easily from a mobile device.”

In New Zealand, Xero is teaming up with GoCardless in an effort to help small businesses in the country with payment collection, according to reports. The idea is that merchants will be able to use direct debit to automate both the collection of payments and reconciliation, while reducing the time needed for administration and increasing cash flow. The report noted that users don’t need extra configuration to link Xero and GoCardless accounts. Craig Hudson, Xero managing director for New Zealand and Pacific Islands, said, “The integration with GoCardless is very exciting as it provides another string in the bow for Kiwi small businesses looking for ways to remove the pain associated with late payments and chasing invoices.”

And, in the UAE, Tappy Technologies is teaming up with Etisalat for a strategic partnership in order to offer wearables for payments, the company said in an announcement. The wearables, which come as demand for contactless payments is rising, will be on display at GITEX Technology Week2018. Tappy Technologies Founder and Chief Executive Officer Wayne Leung said, “We see a massive potential for growth here as the region and particularly the UAE is rapidly moving toward a digital and cashless society.”