Payment Expert’s Fintech Unwrapped delivers the latest and developing news that has shaped the sector over the course of the week.
This week, Standard Chartered has become an official Formula One sponsor, aiming to expand its global visibility and create fan experiences in countries where Standard Chartered markets host F1 Grand Prix’s.
Also this week, Fiserv is bringing flexible payment offerings to financial institutions with Affirm, Mollie has worked alongside Form3 to become VoP compliant, and PayPal relaunches in an African country for the first time in over 20 years.
Standard Chartered becomes official F1 banking partner
Standard Chartered announced on January 27 it will become an official sponsor of Formula One as part of a multi-year sponsorship deal starting from the 2026 season.
The bank will become F1’s official wealth management partner, as well as its corporate and investment banking partner. Standard Chartered will receive signage and branding across F1 Grand Prix’s to enhance its exposure across the sports’ global fanbase.
Through the partnership, Standard Chartered will also work with F1 to promote financial inclusion through partnership with F1 Academy, including developing female participation in the sport.
“We’re proud to become an Official Partner to F1, which shares our relentless commitment to high performance, innovation, a world-class client experience, and distinctive global connectivity,” said Roberto Hoornweg, CEO, Corporate & Investment Banking at Standard Chartered.
“F1’s footprint reflects our own cross-border network, with our presence in 19 out of 21 F1 race markets and many other countries where clients enjoy watching one of the most exciting, fastest-growing sports in the world.”
Fiserv brings Affirm’s BNPL services to clients
Fiserv is launching pay-over-time services to its debit card program for financial institutions in partnership with Affirm, announced on January 26.
This will see Fiserv assist its clients with buy now, pay later (BNPL) payments and benefits, such as enhanced debit engagement, access to Affirm’s network and the ability to split eligible purchases into fixed payments.
Fiserv stated the expansion of its Affirm partnership, which has been in place since 2022, serves to supplement the rising consumer expectations to offer “innovative debit solutions”.
“This partnership gives our clients a practical, scalable way to offer such payment flexibility through their existing debit products—helping them compete effectively, deepen customer and member relationships, and drive top-of-wallet engagement with their products,” said Erik Wichita, Head of Card Services, Fiserv.
Mollie VoP compliant due to Form3
European financial service provider Mollie has integrated Verification of Payee (VoP) with the assistance of Form3.
Confirmed on January 29, Mollie now complies with the European Union’s (EU) VoP standards which requires financial service providers to ensure payment details match IBANs for greater security.
Form3’s VoP infrastructure is cloud-native and supports high-volume payments in the EU and UK. The integration enables Mollie to comply with the new regulatory requirements of VoP while gaining opportunities to expand to other EU markets.
Mollie is the latest Form3 client, including Klarna, Barclays, JP Morgan.
“Meeting the EU’s Verification of Payee mandate is a key compliance priority for Mollie as we are committed to protecting our merchants with the highest standards of payment security,” said Felix Würtenberger, VP of Product at Mollie.
PayPal returns to Nigeria after 20+ years
PayPal has launched in Nigeria for the first time since 2004 in partnership with native fintech firm Paga.
As reported by Yahoo Financial, PayPal World Initiative will be the operating company in Nigeria and will link its accounts to Paga wallets. This activation will also enable Paga access to PayPal’s payments network.
PayPal pulled out of the Nigerian market over 20 years ago, suspending its services due to high volumes of stolen credit cards addressed to Nigerian IPs.
“Until now, Nigerians could not receive money via PayPal. Our partnership unlocks that,” said Paga CEO and Founder Tayo Oviosu in a LinkedIn post.
“Nigerian PayPal users who link their PayPal accounts to Paga can now receive money via PayPal. Only PayPal Nigeria accounts linked to Paga are enabled for receiving money.”
Archax taps OpenPayd for multi-currency fiat settlements
Archax announced a partnership on January 27 with OpenPayd to accelerate its fiat settlements across global trading platforms.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulated digital asset firm will integrate OpenPayd’s infrastructure to support instant settlements across fiat currencies, such as GBP, EUR and USD, to move across its liquidity partners.
OpenPayd’s account structure is a unified treasury environment for managing multi-currency settlements across fiat currencies. The model aims to reduce operational complexity, shortens settlement cycles with liquidity partners, and improves visibility and reconciliation.
“As the adoption of digital assets by institutions continues to grow and scale, it is vital to have credible, streamlined, efficient fiat payment and settlement rails in place to support them – as well as to explore new innovations like stablecoins and digital cash. This partnership with OpenPayd does just that,” said Graham Rodford, CEO and Co-Founder of Archax.
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