Munich-headquartered global payments leader Wirecard takes a collaborative approach to innovation even further in the Asia Pacific region

Singapore, Sept 12 — Wirecard AG, a global innovation leader for digital financial technology, is taking its collaborative approach to innovation even further with accelerator partnerships in the Asia Pacific region. Though the German DAX-listed company started as a payment facilitator, it has continuously evolved in line with its vision to be the global market leader for digital transactions.

Speaking to e27 on the sidelines of the company’s Asia Pacific Innovation Day on Sept 5, Wirecard AG Innovation Labs Executive Vice President Joern Leogrande said the payments world has adapted to the customer journey, including payment across installments, micro-lending, and even insurance.

“The whole value chain has grown, and that has been part of Wirecard’s journey. We were the first company to issue virtual credit cards and P2P payments, and now remain a market leader in these areas,” Leogrande remarked.

In light of changing trends, the Wirecard is taking on its mantle as a “commerce-enabling company.”

“For many payments players, once a merchant buys a terminal, that is the end of the conversion process. For Wirecard, we look to work with anonymous, behavioral data collected by the terminal and derive meaningful insights to build on that conversion with a new retailer”, said Leogrande.

He further added that “payments is just the first step, we then take it further with our partners to introduce new technologies revolving around products like insurance within our terminals.”

The path to innovation — future retail experiences

At the Innovation Day, Wirecard also hosted a panel discussion on the future of payments, which featured its merchants and partners from around the region. Panellists include Visa Principal APAC Economist Glenn Maguire, Berjaya Corporation Director of Retail & Innovation Yau Su Peng, and Mizuho Bank Head of Planning, Knowledge Management & Presence Devashis Das.

Besides exploring the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in the payments space, panellists also discussed how businesses are redefining customer experience with the latest technologies, as well as how to innovate for the next wave of digital payments.

The panel discussion was followed by a showcase of Wirecard’s latest technologies and a glimpse into future innovations, including product demos. Innovation showcases focused on blockchain, biometric terminal, smart mirror, and voice commerce technologies.

“Innovation Labs are all about trying — where we explore new technologies together with our clients and if relevant, incorporate those technologies into our services. The labs also work as an educational tool internally for Wirecard employees — to teach agile methodologies and digital transformation while opening up channels with internal accelerators,” Leogrande explained.

Partnerships and collaborations forged

Understanding that its path to innovation revolves around future retail experiences, Wirecard engages with its retail customers on challenges faced. It then seeks to address these pain points by using targeted partnerships with accelerators around the world. Externally, Wirecard engages with startups via partnerships with accelerators like Plug and Play, Visa Europe Collab, and Slush Shanghai.

The partnership with Visa Europe Collab – an initiative from Visa Europe that operates innovation labs in Berlin, London, and Tel Aviv – sees Wirecard sharing its technology and banking solutions as well as its in-depth market expertise. The aim of this collaboration is to jointly offer fintech startups the insight, partner networks and essential tools to develop services that are set to revolutionize the payment experience.
While fellow German financial giants like Deutsche Bank are members of Plug and Play’s financial hub, Wirecard instead decided to join retailers like Lidl as part of the platform’s Retailtech hub in Munich.

Leogrande said this was a concerted move: “Many banks look to investment banking for innovation, but the future in payments I believe is in the point-of-sale.”

At the same time, Wirecard continues to engage banking partners. On Sept 4, a day prior to the Innovation Day, Wirecard announced the expansion of its partnership with Mizuho Bank, a leading global financial institution. The expansion includes a significant geographic extension, a collaboration on new payout products, and joint digital payment solutions.

Also read: How Chinese mobile payments are quietly conquering the world

Wirecard has been collaborating with Mizuho Bank since 2018, having provided acquiring-and-issuing services for Mizuho Bank corporate clients in the Asian region.

Wirecard and Mizuho Bank are set to collaborate in further geographies within the Asia Pacific, including Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

Globally, the collaboration will also extend to Europe and the United States, with Wirecard supporting Mizuho Bank’s expansion into these regions with acquiring, prepaid issuing and digital payment solutions. To complement Mizuho Bank’s service offering, a corporate payout solution is also being planned. Overall, Wirecard will support Mizuho Bank with innovative and fully digital solutions, aimed especially at banking clients in the food & beverage, retail and hospitality industries.

The future of fintech

Moving forward, Leogrande said Wirecard still sees a huge potential in the digitalization of transactions — even in Germany, 50% of transactions are still conducted with cash. He also noted that globally, e-commerce accounts for 7-10% of the retail market, but in China and the United Kingdom, it is closer to 20%.

“E-commerce is not done yet, and there remains a huge potential in offline-to-online migration. Another key area is financial inclusion across Asia as well as the United State,” Leogrande enthused. “We are also looking at the Internet of Things, which turns almost anything into a new payment device. This can be the backbone of a new form of commerce.”

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