Stripe appoints central bank heavy hitter Mark Carney to board

Stripe, a firm whose tools allow merchants to accept payments, has named Mark Carney to its board of directors. Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, is currently the United Nations envoy on climate action and finance.

Why should we care?
Carney’s appointment comes as Stripe, which was valued at $36B last April, is reportedly preparing for a new funding round at a $100B valuation. The company is expanding its product offerings – including checking accounts through e-commerce platforms in partnership with Citibank, Goldman Sachs, and Barclays – and is planning to expand to new markets in Asia. The company plans to draw on Carney’s experience – both as a central bank governor and sustainability advocate – to advance these objectives. “Stripe will benefit from Mark Carney’s extensive experience of global financial systems and governance. And as it rolls out its climate efforts globally, enabling millions of businesses to bring more funding to emerging carbon removal technologies, the company will receive guidance from one of the world’s leading experts in sustainable finance,” the company said in a statement. According to one estimate, Stripe and fintech competitors Adyen and PayPal make up 10% of global payment processing. By contrast, Fiserv, FIS, Global Payments, and JPMorgan Chase together have a 40% market share.