Square and Mastercard bring card payments to Falkland Islands SMEs

Square, Mastercard and the Falkland Islands Government have teamed up for Connecting the Falklands. a card and digital payments initiative targeting small and medium sized businesses.

The Falkland Islands lie 8,000 miles from London. To date, many of its businesses have been cash only.

Banking and compliance issues made it difficult and sometimes impossible for small businesses to sign up for merchant accounts to accept cards - and to get those funds settled into their bank account. On top of that, card payment machines were difficult to install and maintain in such a remote location.

Mastercard connected the Falkland Islands Government to Square and the three have set about onboarding sellers to Square to provide them with mobile readers and integrating the latest Mastercard technology.

Hattie and Kevin Kilmartin run Bluff Cove, a tour company with a gift shop and museum that was the first to take part. Their previously cash only business now takes 80% of its annual revenue through Square.

“The impact has been significant. Our business is around half an hour’s drive from the capital Stanley where there is the only ATM, so our takings were literally limited by the amount of cash in someone’s pocket,” they say. “Now people can spend significantly more with us as thanks to Square we can take credit and debit cards”

Tim Waggott, Financial Secretary for the Falkland Islands Government, comments: “With increasing visitor numbers, we knew we needed to help our local businesses to make the shift to card payments. My predecessor here, James Wilson, had been working with industry to find a solution and we are really pleased it has finally come to fruition with Square and Mastercard.”

“With the coronavirus pandemic it’s clearly an uncertain time for our business community, but they are resilient and used this time to get set up for the future. When the tourist trade returns, it’ll be more important than ever that we can give everyone safe and convenient ways to pay.”

“This is a huge step forward which will ensure that our industry is well positioned to meet future demand and that Falkland Islands businesses are more financially empowered to expand.”