Stripe is making it easier for merchants to use its financial-services offerings with the technology they already have to process payments. Companies will no longer be locked in to processing payments with Stripe to access its other products. Merchants can use other payments providers while also using Stripe’s billing and tax capabilities, for example. All of Stripe’s products will gracefully inter-operate with third-party processors. Decoupling payment processing from the firm’s other capabilities is attractive for larger enterprises that may be restricted by long-term contract commitments, Stripe said. The firm counts PayPal and Adyen as competitors, and this announcement could further stoke those rivalries. “It raises the level of competition across the payment processing/financial services industry, as merchants can now enjoy Stripe’s vast financial services product suite even if they do payment processing with another provider,” Mizuho Securities USA analyst Ryan Coyne said.