Flywire Adds Trustly As Preferred Payment Option

Flywire, a provider of international payment and receivables services, and Trustly, a European payments company, announced news on Thursday (Oct. 19) of a new partnership in which Trustly becomes a preferred payment option on the Flywire platform.

In a press release, Flywire said that with the addition of Trustly, Flywire clients can offer their international customers a fast and easy way to pay directly from their bank accounts. The cross-border payments service is available across the European Union effective immediately.

“We continue to look for new ways to take complexity and cost out of the international payment process by giving our clients the ability to offer customers their preferred way to pay,” said Mike Massaro, CEO of Flywire, in the press release. “Trustly is a highly popular and proven international payment method in Europe that helps our clients meet their customers’ expectations and expand their business potential.”

Citing research from Datamonitor, Flywire said 93 percent of European consumers use their bank accounts as their main funding source. As a result, merchants and service providers are looking for ways to accommodate consumers’ preferred payment methods.

Trustly offers cross-border online banking payments to and from consumer bank accounts and connects businesses, institutions and consumers by linking over 3,000 banks together in Europe. 

“We are very pleased to partner with Flywire, an innovative leader in its field. Now Europeans can pay Flywire-supported businesses, academic institutions and healthcare providers in a simple, safe and convenient way. The digitally minded European consumer will value the possibility to use Trustly’s solution for paying directly from the bank account,” said Oscar Berglund, CEO of Trustly, in the same press release.

The new partnership comes as Flywire has seen a strong back-to-school season this year. In an interview with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster, Flywire CEO Mike Massaro said the season thus far has been a strong one, with double-digit growth as students in one country decide to study in another.

Consider China’s 10 percent growth in international students, with 80,000 Chinese students going to study in the United Kingdom alone. India’s tally there stands at 15 percent, said Massaro. Other hotspots include Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong, marked by relatively liberal immigration policies.  

Flywire’s success has been based on a few core concentrations, said Massaro — namely pricing with attendant analytics, which he said give indications of fair and reasonable pricing defined on a market-by-market basis in education (and also healthcare).