Stripe launches virtual card initiative in Europe
In a view to expanding to other regions and offer service in a competitive environment, payment companies are pushing virtual card products in order to lure and expand their client base.
This week, San Francisco-based payments processor Stripe has launched a product called Stripe Issuing in 20 European countries including Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK.
Under Strip Issuing, users would be able to create, manage, and distribute virtual and physical payment cards, giving businesses more control over how they spend their money, as noted in the press note.
“Creating and distributing new cards in Europe has long been so complex and opaque that only a handful of companies could ever justify doing it”, said Matt Henderson, EMEA Business Lead, Stripe.
Adding further Matt Henderson said that with Stripe Issuing, it would take two days to issue a card. Cards created on Stripe Issuing can be ‘programmatically controlled, with dynamic spending limits, blocked merchant categories, advanced combinations of rules, and even real-time authorisations for each transaction, all managed via Stripe’s Issuing API’.
The Stripe Issuing integrates with Stripe’s suite of products so the clients can manage card issuing ‘programmes right alongside payments, fraud prevention, analytics, invoices, and recurring billing’.