Wirecard Integrates Chinese Payment Methods With the Long-established German Company Faber-Castell

ASCHHEIM, Germany, November 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

• Tourists from China benefit from digital payment solutions in Faber-Castell brand shops 
• Wirecard records with Chinese payment methods at individual merchants transaction volumes of up to EUR 10 million per month   

Wirecard, the leading global innovation driver in digital financial technology, together with its partner Safety Tax Free, has won the long-established German company Faber-Castell as a customer for the integration of Chinese payment solutions. Wirecard provides Faber-Castell, one of the world's leading providers of writing materials and stationery, with a fully digitalized payment approach for some of the most popular Chinese payment methods, including Alipay.

The partnership benefits Chinese customers, who can now pay in Faber-Castell brand shops in Germany as if they were in their home country, without having to exchange money. In addition, they can also take advantage of special offers and coupons. Introducing fully digitalized payment methods is lucrative for merchants and suppliers. For example, Wirecard records with Chinese payment methods at individual merchants a transaction volume of up to EUR 10 million per month.

Faber-Castell, which was founded in 1761, is one of the oldest industrial companies in the world and has been family-owned for nine generations. The digital payment solution will initially be launched in Faber-Castell's four brand shops: in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Hamburg, and at the Faber-Castell castle in Stein near Nuremberg. Thanks to Wirecard's digital solution, Chinese customers will also benefit from higher VAT refund rates thanks to Safety Tax Free.

Chengyuan Zhai, Founder and Managing Director of Safety Tax Free, said, "The joint solution with Wirecard accepts mobile payment methods such as Alipay and allows shoppers from China to create digital and fully completed refund forms with just one click. This completely eliminates the need to fill out tax refund forms by hand and stand in line at the airport. Customers save time and the amount is transferred within a few days directly for example to the desired Alipay account in the local currency - without exchange costs - which further increases customer satisfaction."

Catharina Tiede, Head of Partner Management Consumer Goods at Wirecard, added, "Chinese tourists are world travel champions, and therefore the potential for Faber-Castell and other European retailers is enormous. We are pleased to support the traditional Faber-Castell brand in taking a step towards digitized payment by equipping the brand shops with our innovative and practical payment solution."

About Wirecard:  

Wirecard (GER: WDI) is one of the world's fastest growing digital platforms in the area of financial commerce. We provide both corporate clients and consumers with a constantly expanding ecosystem of real-time value-added services built around innovative digital payments by using an integrated B2B2C approach. This ecosystem concentrates on solutions in the areas payment and risk, retail and transaction banking, loyalty and coupon programs in addition to data analytics and conversion rate enhancement across all sales channels (online, mobile, ePOS). Wirecard operates regulated financial institutions in several key markets, in addition to holding issuing and acquiring licenses from all major payment and card networks. Wirecard AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (DAX and TecDAX, ISIN DE0007472060). Visit us on www.wirecard.com, follow us on Twitter @wirecard and on Facebook @wirecardgroup.

About Faber-Castell:  

With 2.4 billion pencils and colored pencils, Faber-Castell is the oldest and largest manufacturer of wood-cased pencils and one of the world's leading suppliers of high-quality products for writing, drawing and creative design. Faber-Castell has manufacturing facilities in nine countries, sales companies in 23 countries and sales agencies in over 120 countries.

About Safety Tax Free: 

Safety Tax Free was founded in 2016 by Chinese graduates from the Technical University of Munich with the mission of digitalizing and simplifying tax refund processes. We have developed a practical mobile application that spares Chinese tourists from excessive waiting time at the airport, bureaucracy at the point of sale and provides a digital tax payout via smartphone. Our solution for retailers is enhanced by mobile payment and China-targeted marketing to reduce language and technology barriers when shopping in a foreign environment. Our solution has already been awarded by Union Pay International, the BayStart Up Munich Business Plan Contest 2017 and the Chinese Tourists Welcome Award in the category of Internet and Media and is operative in more than 2.000 partner stores.

Media contact Wirecard:
Wirecard AG
Jana Tilz
Tel.: +49(0)89-4424-1363
Email: jana.tilz@wirecard.com

Media contact Faber-Castell:
Faber-Castell AG
Tel.: +49(0)911-9965-5538
Email: press-office@faber-castell.de

Media contact Safety Tax Free:
Safety Tax Free GmbH
Sarah Buchwieser
Tel.: +49(0)89-1225-7317
Email: info@safetytaxfree.com