Free takes on cash with Stancer Pay

French telecoms operator Iliad has been causing speculation in the payments world, following increasingly accurate rumours of a new offering. Indeed, the operator has just launched a PSP behind a cash offer called Stancer Pay. The creator of Free is once again betting on the tariff to make a place for itself in a market already under pressure.

FACTS

• Stancer Pay is aimed at small and independent retailers to offer them an online and point-of-sale payment system.

• Content of the offer :

  • an API that can be downloaded by the merchant to start accepting online payments

  • an Eftpos terminal to accept payments at the point of sale

• Pricing conditions :

  • at the point of sale: 0.7% of the amount of the transaction + €0.07 per transaction (for amounts over €7)

  • online: 0.7% of the transaction amount + €0.15 per transaction (for amounts over €7)

  • the Eftpos terminal is free (charged at €15 per month if the number of transactions is less than 150 per month)

• Stancer Pay has tested its offer by accepting Free's online transactions, i.e. 20,000 transactions per day, for a total amount of nearly €1 billion in one year. Other synergies could be found via partnerships with other group subsidiaries.

CHALLENGES

• Reshuffle the deck: As Free did on the telecom operator market, Stancer Pay should use the same levers to impose itself on the payment market. The operator is betting first on prices, with a very aggressive approach, which could turn out to be 2 to 3 times less expensive for merchants. Its strategy also consists of not penalising small-value transactions and not charging a subscription fee for the Eftpos terminal (i.e. no commitment).

• Attacking existing business models to put pressure on market players: The players most concerned will be those involved in mobile payment, such as SumUp and Zettle, but also banking players. Especially since Iliad does not intend to stop there and should develop other offers, from fractional payment to the development of e-commerce sites, including a mobile-to-mobile payment offer on iOS.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• This is not Iliad and Free's first foray into the financial services market. Under the guise of offering value-added services to its customers, in a context marked by the diversification of players from all sides, Free presented a leasing offer dedicated to smartphones in July 2021, in partnership with Younited. Called Free Flex, the offer was then combined with Free Mobile packages. It allowed the group to propose a first alternative financial offer, to counter the model of subsidised offers decried by the group's boss Xavier Niel.

• Iliad also has a SWIFT code and AISP and PISP status, which will be issued by the ACPR in 2019.