CBA ready to launch its challenger to Stripe
Commonwealth Bank will launch a new payments service known as Powerboard next month, as it ramps up its competitive response to US fintechs Stripe and Block, and protects its grip on retail transaction data from Silicon Valley disruptors.
CBA, which banks one-in-four Australian businesses, sees low-margin payment services as a driver of corporate deposits and loans, where profits are larger.
“We have never sold more devices to merchants than we are at the moment,” said Mike Vacy-Lyle. Eamon Gallagher
Powerboard, first announced in December and in pilot this year, is an interface for businesses to manage payment collection from various providers, including from buy now pay later services, while allowing CBA to keep visibility of critical data used to assess credit risk.
Stripe, the large, private Irish-American fintech, has been aggressively growing in the Australian market, making major banks nervous that it will disintermediate their visibility of transaction flows.
Stripe’s software platform connects payment types and provides ancillary services such as data analytics and tax preparation. Stripe said last week it is being used by 500,000 businesses in Australia. It now lets merchants use their iPhone to accept in-store payments (joining Westpac and Tyro in enabling Apple’s service). It also released a new physical payment terminal.
It is eight months since CBA first announced Powerboard as its payments project. Its group executive for business banking, Mike Vacy-Lyle, admitted getting the product out to market had been complex.
“It is a much tricker sell, as you do need specialist sales people, so it is a longer sales conversation with the customer,” he said. “But we will be going out to the market in early September,
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