Global Payments, Google Collaborate On Cloud-Based Payments

Global Payments Inc. and Google have formed a partnership to provide cloud-based offerings and functionalities, according to a Monday (Feb. 8) announcement. Global Payments will migrate its merchant acquiring infrastructure to Google Cloud and will equip Google with merchant acquiring services, while both companies will roll out go-to-market and co-sell activities jointly, according to the announcement.

“We are delighted to embark on this transformational journey with Google to further enhance our industry-leading merchant solutions ecosystem with additional scale, reach and speed of market to seamlessly deliver new innovative, digital technologies to customers worldwide,” Global Payments CEO Jeff Sloan said in the announcement.

Google and Global Payments will work together on “product development and innovation” to continue to improve and differentiate the cloud-based technologies that merchant clients can access on Google Cloud. Global Payments’ merchant clients will have the capacity to electronically obtain a collection of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions like gift card, loyalty, email marketing, payments and omnichannel ordering offerings. Those products will be provided via Global Payments’ cloud-native operating environment. Furthermore, Global Payments will move a large share of its merchant acquiring system workload to Google Cloud. Global Payments will also become a global merchant acquiring provider to Google, while Google will harness Global Payments’ unified commerce platform for acceptance technology.

Non-cash payments are essential to the worldwide economy, with the U.S. processing over 174.2 billion of these payments in just 2018 for an overall $97.04 trillion. Cash payments are expediently falling to the wayside, with just 26 percent of all U.S. consumer purchases handled with cash.

Digital payments are fraught with hurdles. It is essential that credit unions (CUs), banks and other financial institutions (FIs) update their payment systems for a faster, less costly experience. In a Deep Dive, PYMNTS explores the different challenges that payments face, in addition to how automation and cloud-based systems can help FIs overcome them.