(23 January 2018 – USA) The US-based online payments company is looking to take advantage of the increased regulatory complexity of open banking and PSD2 to power the next generation of fintech startups.
As the second payment services directive (PSD2) and open banking regulations come into effect across Europe this week, online payments providers like Stripe could be set to see a spike in demand for their services.
Open banking will force banks to publish application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow their customers to share their banking information with approved third parties.
Stripe's job, according to UK country manager Iain McDougall is to “outsource regulatory complexity for customers and to abstract technical complexity to integrate with financial infrastructure.”
This focus on APIs certainly validates the path Stripe has forged to a US$9 billion valuation since being founded by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison back in 2010.
“I think the move to a more API-ified world does provide us with a degree of validation – that is what we do,” McDougall said.