The world’s biggest card issuer, China UnionPay, has stepped up its European ambitions after striking a deal with a UK back-office startup, Tribe Payments, that will see it offer debit and credit cards in Europe. The deal makes Tribe one of the first issuer processors in Europe to havew the necessary certification to allow banks to issue UnionPay cards.
Tribe Payments, a team of industry experts dedicated to delivering the future of payments, launches today and „has already achieved a key milestone with UnionPay International – Tribe is among the first issuer processors in Europe to be certified to allow banks to issue UnionPay cards which have the world’s largest cardholder base.”, according to the press release.
Tribe is founded by payments veteran Suresh Vaghjiani, who has worked with a host of fintechs – including Curve, Monzo, Revolut and Starling – to deliver ground-breaking payment services.
The startup provides payment technology to banks, fintechs, issuers, acquirers and other businesses providing payment services to merchants and consumers. Unlike other payment companies, Tribe’s platform ISAAC has been built from the ground up as modular and containerised.
„This means that Tribe brings technology advances to the back-end of payments that fintechs have delivered at the front-end: concepts can be delivered in days rather than weeks, pilot programs in place in weeks rather than months, and a product launch can be delivered in months instead of years—a timetable impossible with legacy platforms.”, the company said.
By breaking the legacy cycle with micro services architecture from the outset, Tribe allows companies to innovate in ways that have not been possible until now, thanks to fast integration of features driven by client and consumer demand.
“Working with innovative partners such as Tribe Payments is a key part of our expansion and growth in the European market where we are accepted by 3.3 million merchants in over 40 countries,” said Wei Zhihong, UnionPay International’s Market Director and Head of its European Branch. “We have the largest cardholder base in the world, working with issuers through Tribe is important to our growth. We are delighted to partner with Tribe Payments to deliver the innovations that will address critical market needs.”
“Consumers are now used to more choice and a better experience of financial products—but the fintech revolution has yet to reach other payment providers. These organisations rely on legacy infrastructure; too often that represents a compromise between speed and scale – it either takes months or years to deliver or, if delivered too quickly, will often be plagued by instability,” said Suresh Vaghjiani, CEO of Tribe Payments.”
„This agreement shows UnionPay’s intent to compete with the major card schemes in Europe,” Vaghjiani added. “This is the first time European institutions will be able to put UnionPay cards into the hands of people on the street.”
According to Vaghijiani, there are two unnamed clients looking to issue UnionPay’s cards – one for a virtual card in Europe and another for a debit card in the UK.
Tribe’s ISAAC platform uses modular open source architecture allowing the system to update and develop with isolated code releases unlike legacy providers that still use main frames built in Cobol or even newer providers that have built their entire platform on a single string of developer code.
About Tribe Payments
Unlike most vendors, Tribe provides all aspects of payments using a modular platform to businesses – predominantly acquirers and issuers – that serve merchants and consumers across the globe. Tribe is the only provider to fully break the ‘legacy-cycle’, using disposable technology to ensure zero-obsolescence and containerisation to minimise risk.
As Europe’s only issuer processor working with Mastercard, Visa and UnionPay International, „we offer unrivalled market connectivity”. We build to global scale, securely – we are PCI Level 1 compliant and supported by our own private cloud.
„Our mission is to deliver payment technology that no longer compromises between scale and speed.”
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
