ThinkSmart Sells ClearPay Shares To Afterpay Touch; Sainsbury’s Tests Mobile Checkout

Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes ThinkSmart Europe Limited‘s sale of ClearPay shares to Australia’s Afterpay Touch Group Limited. In addition, The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has given U.K.-based Wirex an eMoney license, and the Sainsbury’s supermarket chain is experimenting with scan, pay and go technology in the U.K.

ThinkSmart Europe Limited has sold nearly all — 90 percent — of its share capital in ClearPay to Australia-based Afterpay Touch Group Limited, ThinkSmart said in an announcement. ClearPay, which launched in March, enables retailers to allow customers to make purchases of up to £450 at the point of sale and spread the cost over three interest-free monthly payments. With the deal, Afterpay is acquiring ClearPay’s contracts with service providers as well as employees with local knowledge of the U.K. market.

And the U.K.‘s Sainsbury’s supermarket chain its experimenting with new technology that will allow customers to pay for their purchases using their smartphones, according to reports. At one particular convenience store, customers can use the scan, pay and go system from any aisle with a digital wallet. And, already, customers can use an app called SmartShop at a designated checkout counter in 68 of the company’s grocery stores.

In other news, U.K. financial watchdog The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has given London-based Wirex an eMoney license, Finance Magnates reported. The company offers a pre-paid debit card that allows customers to change their crypto into fiat currency, such as euros, pounds and dollars. As of September of last year, the company counted 800,000 users and $1 billion worth of transactions.

And Google might be renaming its Tez payment service in India to Pay and bringing it under the Google Pay umbrella, people familiar with the matter told The Economic Times. However, a Google spokesperson would only tell the outlet “we have always maintained that we will bring payments across different platforms.” The move could possibly bring the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to the Google Play Store for app purchases.