Payments-software provider ACI Worldwide Inc. is in talks with private equity firms about a potential sale, according to people familiar with the matter. The Naples, Florida-based company is working with financial advisers as it fields takeover interest, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. There’s no certainty ACI will reach a deal given the rocky state of the leveraged financing markets, one of the people said. Shares of ACI, which had fallen 35% in the past year before Wednesday, rose as much as 14% for their biggest jump since March 2020.
Payment industry acquisitions last year amounted to a whimper, compared to the roars seen in recent years. The value of payments deals plummeted to $27.2 billion, or about a third of the $76.7 billion in transactions in 2021, according to The Strawhecker Group, an Omaha-based industry consulting firm. The number of acquisitions last year also declined, by 14% to 113, from 132 in 2021, underscoring the smaller size of transactions in 2022. Economic conditions were the culprit when it came to the blame game for why there wasn’t more merger and acquisition activity in the industry last year, said TSG’s Zach Spellman, who is a project manager at the firm. Related: M&A Winter is Coming
When the Federal Trade Commission announced two days before Christmas it had leveled a preliminary consent order against Mastercard Inc. to correct what the agency saw as roadblocks the card company had erected against routing online debit transactions to competing networks, the move may have surprised at least some observers. The surprise lay not in what the FTC had to say, but in what it omitted: the order left out Visa Inc., Mastercard’s main rival and a company the Commission had identified only two months earlier as a fellow actor in blocking debit routing to other networks.
Remembering their time at Gravity Payments, some employees of the Seattle-based credit card processor recall a pernicious cycle. Come in star-struck by celebrity founder and CEO Dan Price, a progressive social media star famous for setting base salaries at $70,000. Then notice the demands pile up. Attend a company event where colleagues share their personal traumas. Answer Price’s late-night calls. Overhear one of the CEO’s “explosive” outbursts. Watch your stress level rise and work-life balance collapse. Finally, get fed up and leave, or speak up and get pushed out.
FTX founder and fallen cryptocurrency guru Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty through his attorney at his arraignment Tuesday on charges he misappropriated billions of dollars, defrauding customers and investors in companies he controlled while allegedly concealing his illegal handling of funds. A trial date was also scheduled for later this year. It was the second courtroom appearance in Manhattan for Bankman-Fried, 30, who was extradited from the Bahamas last month and has been under a house arrest order on a $250 million bond.
The lone bank branch in town stands just one block away from the Arctic Ocean. Customers trickle into the building, rushing indoors to avoid the 17-degree weather on a breezy December day. It's pitch-black outside for most of the day this time of year in Utqiagvik, the northernmost U.S. city. It's at the very top of Alaska, reachable only by planes from hundreds of miles away. Some customers walk or drive to the branch. A few come by four-wheeler ATVs or snowmobiles that locals call "snow machines," which drivers put in idle while they go in to deposit money.
A new report found over $3.9 billion was “lost” last year. While that might seem like a whopping amount of capital to lose track of, it’s down 51.2% compared to 2021, when over $8 billion was stolen, the report found. Crypto losses are defined as a combination of hacks and alleged fraud incidents, Adrian Hetman, tech lead of the triaging team at Immunefi, previously told TechCrunch. In 2022, the majority of losses, or $3.77 billion, were from hacks across 134 specific incidents. About $175 million was lost to fraud across 34 incidents in the same time frame.
It’s been long speculated that Klarna will file an IPO at some point, and this year may be the time. The company is still adding new users despite decelerating transaction growth that peaked last January, Maloof said. Plus, the company is officially top dog as far as BNPL companies are concerned, with a larger market share (44.5%) than Affirm (19.6%) of total Q3 app downloads. But the entire BNPL industry is facing the same headwinds: rising rates, economic uncertainty, and regulatory scrutiny.
After a record-breaking year of fundraising and growth in 2021, many European fintechs were forced to step on the brakes in 2022. As access to fresh investment dried up, the sector saw some of the biggest layoffs, the first downrounds and the first insolvencies in European tech. Heading into 2023, industry watchers expect even more of the same. As the tech sector that’s closest to financial markets, a slowdown in economic growth will have a direct impact on fintech revenues.
The home-goods giant Bed Bath & Beyond says it's running out of money and may need to file for bankruptcy protection — or worse. Its stores have seen fewer shoppers and declining sales as the retailer has struggled to find its footing in recent years through a series of poorly timed or otherwise lackluster turnaround strategies. Now Bed Bath & Beyond "has concluded that there is substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern," the retailer said on Thursday.
The number of U.S. restaurants — including chain franchises and independents — is still meaningfully lower than what it was before the advent of COVID-19. That’s according to Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, who noted that the number of restaurants per capita is at its lowest point in 25 years against a backdrop of population growth.
Amazon has announced that it will be “eliminating” more than 18,000 roles at the company, extending a previously-announced round of layoffs that was set to impact some 10,000 workers. The announcement is significant in terms of the number of people impacted, though it represents just 1.2% of Amazon’s 1.5 million global headcount.
200 million Twitter users’ private information, including their email addresses, was put for sale after a breach exposed 400 million users’ private information in the last week of December 2022. The hacker behind the December breach had earlier demanded $200,000 from Twitter in a bid to return the stolen data and warned if the demand is not fulfilled, the data will be released for free.
Denmark has recorded its first year without bank robberies, as the use of cash has dwindled in recent years, the country’s finance workers’ union said. The increasingly cashless society had led banks to reduce their cash services, the union said on Monday, leaving little potential loot for robbers. “It’s nothing short of amazing. Because every time it happens, it’s an extreme strain on the employees involved,” said Steen Lund Olsen, the vice president of the union, Finansforbundet.
Coinbase settled a case with New York’s state financial regulator, the parties announced Wednesday, and will pay a $50 million fine and invest a further $50 million in compliance efforts. Regulators from the New York Department of Financial Services said the company had longstanding failures in its anti-money laundering program. Coinbase shares closed up over 12% on the settlement news.
It’s too soon to say whether the Federal Reserve’s efforts to reduce inflation will lead to a recession, but continuing interest rate hikes increase the chances, National Retail Federation Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said. “This year starts with the possibility of easing inflation but also uncertainty,” Kleinhenz said, referring to the interest rate hikes. “There is no easy fix for inflation, and the Fed’s job of trying to bring down rising prices without damaging the labor market or the rest of the economy is not enviable.”
The jobs market closed out 2022 on a high note, with companies adding far more positions than expected in December, payroll processing firm ADP reported Thursday. Private payrolls rose by 235,000 for the month, well ahead of the 153,000 Dow Jones estimate and the 127,000 initially reported for November. While the goods-producing sector increased by a relatively meager 22,000, service providers added 213,000, led by leisure and hospitality, which added 123,000 positions.
Many CEOs, investors and consumers are worried about a recession in 2023. But Moody’s Analytics says the more likely scenario is a “slowcession,” where growth grinds to a near halt but a full economic downturn is narrowly avoided. “Under almost any scenario, the economy is set to have a difficult 2023,” Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi wrote in a report on Tuesday.
Fidelity National Information Services might not be a household name, but investors might want to get to know it this year. The company’s software and services are part of many everyday financial activities, like checking your bank-account balance or paying with a card at big merchants. Known as FIS, its shares performed relatively steadily as the pandemic began. But changes in the payments landscape in recent years have caused growth and margins to come under pressure in the company’s merchant-payments business, helping to make the stock a laggard to many peers in 2022.
Shopify Technologies Inc on Tuesday launched a new service aimed at big retailers that will allow them to select tools and services the Canadian tech giant offers and integrate it with their own online platform. The company said it had signed up toymaker Mattel Inc for the product, and was looking to bring other enterprise clients it works with, such as Glossier, Coty, Steve Madden and Staples, onboard.
Santander Bank has partnered Global Payments to launch a new commercial card in order to simplify the banking experience of clients in the US. Through this partnership, Santander aims to deliver new digital capabilities and launch innovative B2B products and services by leveraging TSYS, which is Global Payments’ Issuer Solutions business. This new commercial banking card was designed to meet the evolving needs of technology-focused consumers.
With the issuance of UnionPay cards exceeding 200 million outside the Chinese Mainland, UnionPay International (UPI) is stepping into a new decade of providing high quality, cost effective and secure cross-border payment services to the world's largest cardholder base. UPI's partners have expanded from 60 initial members since establishment in 2012 to 2,500 institutions internationally with an acceptance network that currently spans 181 countries and regions, 78 of which now issue UnionPay cards, ensuring convenient local services to an ever-growing number of global UnionPay cardholders and merchants.
As part of the PayTech Women Executive Committee’s seamless leadership transition, Kelly Beatty, chief performance officer, FIS, and former president-elect of PTW, moves into the role of president, succeeding Kelly Tufts, vice president of field talent, Discover, who is now immediate past president. Polly Van Duser, SPHR, vice president, talent acquisition, One Inc, transitions to president-elect; Audrey Blackmon, general manager, strategic partnerships, BHG Financial, becomes treasurer; and Dawn Delaney, vice president, innovation & fintech partnerships, wholesale payments, JPMorgan Chase, joins the Executive Committee as secretary.
The Clearing House (TCH) announced that President & CEO Jim Aramanda will be retiring in early-2023, after 15 years leading the company. Aramanda will be succeeded by David Watson, who most recently served as Chief Product Officer of Swift. In this role, Watson maintained responsibility for Swift’s product engineering, development, and innovation with focus on the company’s services to banking, securities, market infrastructure, and corporate customers. His appointment is effective February 1, 2023.
SVB announced the appointment of Kim Olson as Chief Risk Officer (CRO). In this role, Olson will lead the Risk function and team, developing and maintaining SVB’s risk management framework and a culture of risk management across the company. “Kim’s deep and multi-faceted financial services experience as a senior risk leader and former regulator and bank supervisor positions her perfectly to actively manage SVB’s financial and non-financial risks and to build and scale the firm’s risk management capabilities through our next phase of growth,” said Greg Becker, president and CEO of SVB.
SVB announced the appointment of Kim Olson as Chief Risk Officer (CRO). In this role, Olson will lead the Risk function and team, developing and maintaining SVB’s risk management framework and a culture of risk management across the company. “Kim’s deep and multi-faceted financial services experience as a senior risk leader and former regulator and bank supervisor positions her perfectly to actively manage SVB’s financial and non-financial risks and to build and scale the firm’s risk management capabilities through our next phase of growth,” said Greg Becker, president and CEO of SVB.
Castles Technology announces that North American President and CTO Ben Love will become the CEO for North America Headquarters, effective January 1, 2023. Current North American CEO Winston Fong will serve on the board of Castles North America as Vice Chairman and resume his Chief Strategy Officer position in the global Castles Technology organization, Ben returned to Castles Technology in July 2022 and brings twenty-five years of international experience in key roles to deliver foundational industry change in payment acceptance, advancing the state of point of sale, and building and leading teams to success in fintech startups and large global organizations.
Financial Transmission Network Inc., a provider of industry-leading accounts receivable automation, payment processing and cash application solutions, announced that Auveco, a leader in the specialty automotive fastener and body hardware aftermarket, has launched several new customer-facing and back-office payment processing and cash application solutions, headlined by convenient online payment capabilities for Auveco customers.
