January 2023 Summaries

Airwallex’s January product update introduces US paper-check payments for local suppliers and Apple Pay support for multi-currency cards in Singapore. Expense-management enhancements include automatic category suggestions based on prior tagging, a homepage task list for outstanding submissions and approvals, asset-account coding for card spending, and a new expense description field that syncs with Xero to simplify reconciliation. Online Payments now deducts local taxes during transaction settlement rather than through month-end invoices, while businesses can open Singapore Global Accounts under their own names. Upcoming features include Hong Kong Faster Payment System support for online checkout, offering potentially lower costs, faster settlements, and chargeback protection, as well as centralized direct-debit deposit-limit increases for enterprise platforms with connected accounts.

API card issuing, also called modern card issuing, enables businesses to create branded physical or virtual payment cards and embed financial services directly into platforms such as eCommerce marketplaces, ridesharing apps, lenders, and travel services. Unlike traditional issuing, which requires businesses to coordinate separately with card networks, sponsor banks, processors, and compliance providers, API-based platforms combine these functions and let developers customize card features, payment authorization, KYC, spend controls, and account management through software interfaces. The text presents Airwallex as a full-stack provider that handles banking partnerships, compliance, transaction processing, multi-currency accounts, and Visa-network card access across more than 200 countries and territories. It suggests businesses can use these capabilities to create wallets linked to cards, distribute funds, collect repayments or sales revenue, make international supplier payments, track spending in real time, and potentially earn interchange revenue, while using tokenization and compliance measures to improve payment security.