Global shipping giant Maersk announced that it’s partnered with Stripe to overhaul its payments infrastructure. Stripe tailored its products to accommodate Maersk’s multinational compliance requirements.

Why should we care?
Stripe has the opportunity to prove the need for fintech’s integration with global supply chains. Before its partnership with Stripe, Maersk had divided its payments operations into tokenization, payments processing, and security authentication segments. Beyond condensing these processes within a single, more efficient structure, Stripe has also let Maersk customers pay with credit cards for the first time. “At a time when many players still work on paper, communicate via fax, and transact in cash, Maersk has modernized its economic infrastructure, in part with help from Stripe,” Stripe said in its press release. Especially while supply chains continue to struggle under the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic, modernizing payments can help reduce cash flow cycles and, potentially, speed up shipping cycles. Maersk’s fintech strategy can set it apart from its competitors, and apply pressure to other shipping companies to modernize their payments processes as well. Fintech may help the shipping industry move (somewhat) more quickly—as long as another ship doesn’t run aground in the Suez Canal.